Tape Player
by Fallen Angel Mitsu
Summary: What goes on when Mitsuru decides to record things that other people aren't supposed to hear. And what happens Mahiru just so happens to find that tape recorder? Chaos follows that's for sure
1. Wake Up

**A/N: **Well I've decided that I'll do a little spin-off of Mitsuru's Dream. Yes it would be funny to continue it, but I just wrote it spur of the moment and I think it should stay like that. Sorry if you wanted it to be longer but we don't always get what we want. That is a very crappy lesson.

**Disclaimer:** Do ya see my name printed on the cover, or anywhere else on it? Thought so.

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter One: Wake Up **

Mahiru awoke sleepy; of course any teenager would no matter what time, even at 3 in the afternoon, but she awoke at 6 A.M. On a weekend, that's just wrong.

"Oh the irony of it all, I wanna sleep in during school and when it's not a school day I wake up early. Talk about twisted." She groaned as she rolled out of bed and downstairs to where the way too energetic Akira greeted her.

"Hihi Mahiru, did ya sleep good? I thought you sleep in today, oh well more fun for us today! Any who, what do ya want for breakfast?" All that he had said had come out so quickly that all she heard was, "hdasgfkhasgdljh"

When she didn't answer the were-wolf the first time he was about to send a whole nother barrage of questions when a certain person hit him over the head with their fist: that person…Nozomu.

"Shaddup," he grumbled , "I don't wanna deal with this until after my coffee." That fact was made evident by shirt he was wearing that said: 'Coffee, my sustainer of consciousness, you bother me before I have it and your unconscious.' He then turned to Mahiru with his patented grin, how when he was just about ready to murder Akira, she'd never know. "Good morning Prin- Mahiru. What I think he asked was what do you want for breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry at the moment, I came down to see what is going on today I guess…" she told him; her still in sleep mode brain thinking, '_Holy mother of all sugars he's hot.'_

But then something clicked in her head, it was quiet…too quiet. No grumbling from a certain tengu about how the world sucks, life sucks, damn you, damn him, damn the world and no get the hell away from damn girl. Just silence, it was kinda creepy.

"It's so…," she looked around waiting for him to come out of the shadows and glare at her to death for simply just existing, "quite, where's Mitsuru?" The other two members of the Lunar Race looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders saying how they hadn't seen him since last night when he was outside having to wash the van as a punishment, for trying to pick a fight with Misoka…again, and cursing about how it seemed that all birds decided to use the van as their 'personal shitting ground'.

* * *

Mitsuru was up in his room tossing and turning in his sleep.

_He was standing in the middle of a park; it seemed vaguely familiar from when he was a child. Looking around he saw why it was familiar; over by the swings away from all the other children, was a boy…Mitsuru as a kid. Damn how he hated all those other kids; they had mothers, he didn't; they had friends, he didn't. _

_Mitsuru shook his head, 'Don't think like that,' he told himself, 'it makes you soft. And I'm not a softie dammit.' _

_He then heard a name a name he so hated, even more than the one he'd been nicknamed at the home. That name…Mahiru. Looking over there was a short blonde version of her playing in a sandbox with a bunch of other kids. She was being called by one of the kids over by the slides to come play with them. _

_The younger version of him looked up and unfortunately had caught her eye before he could pretend like he had been looking at her. She told the kids at the slides that she would be over later, that she felt like swinging by herself for the moment and walked slowly to the swings. "Hi," the annoying high pitched six year old voice said, plopping on the seat next to him._

"_Go away."_

_She ignored the comment continuing on, "I saw you over here and thought you needed some body to play with. It's not fun being by yourself when there are bunches of people to play with. By the way I'm Mahiru. What's your name?"_

_What was this girl's deal? Did she not see that he obviously wanted to be alone and she was ruining his plan of being by himself? "None of your business you dumb girl."_

"_I told you mine!" she countered; it was an unspoken rule at that age that if somebody told you their name, you tell them yours. "Mitsuru." He grumbled._

"_Mit-su, no, Mitru, no. I can't say it so how about I call you Mitty? I like it, Mitty, Mitty, Mitty." She smiled swinging her legs back and forth every time she said his new name._

_Mitsuru was too disgusted by the scene in front of him to notice the arms that began encircling his chest until it was too late. "WHAT THE HELL!" he screamed. Turning his head he saw the body of which the arms sprouted from and standing there was Mahiru. _

"_Wha-what the hell do you want!" he faltered when he noticed that her face was too close for comfort. She smiled sweetly before extending as far as she could on her tip toes and their lips briefly touched._

Mitsuru flung himself up into a sitting position panting heavily and drenched in cold sweat. Just what the hell did he just do?

Leaning over the side of his bed he reached under and searched frantically for something. He felt a small plastic-like square and brought it out; it was a tape player that he recorded stuff on…if ever found he would be a major creek with out a paddle. Mitsuru fast forwarded to a blank place on the recorder and started telling out his dream.

Mahiru climbed the stairs, she was going to Mitsuru's room to see if he was in there even if all he would do was yell obscenities her. Because for a reason that she had no idea about…she was worried something was wrong.

_TBC_

**A/N:** Well that's the first chapter hope everyone likes it. Sorry if they didn't seem like their normal selves and if the paragraphing sucks. This time I didn't even bother with paper and a pencil therefore this is probably going to be kinda crappy. Flame if you like but not to badly please for I don't respond well to an immense amount of pain. Later everybody.


	2. Flipping Psychotic

**A/N: **Well how's everybody doing since day one, good I hope, if not then that completely sucks. It's my spring break, it's only Sunday so I've got a whole teacher free week. Yay! Only problem though…I'm already bored. - . - That's just wrong. But of course I'm not normal, then again who is normal and who's not? I dunno, enough of my babbling and onward with fan fiction.

**Disclaimer: **same as 1st chapter

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Two: Flipping Psychotic**

Mahiru stopped at Mitsuru's door, she thought that she heard him talking, but she had thought a lot of things that didn't happen, like the clouds bursting open and having it rain ice cream. What convinced her that she did hear him talking was the name 'Damn Girl' was used, but if he used Mahiru then, yeah she'd know he was talking, for hell would freeze over before he'd even used her name. Other than those words Mahiru wasn't able to decipher the rest of his conversation with himself.

She knocked once quietly, when he didn't answer she was about to enter but thought better of it. '_This is Mitsuru after all first he yell about coming into his room. Then he'd try, key word **try**, to kill her, fail miserably, and finally start damning everything.'_

"Mit-Mitsuru I'm coming in." she said loudly to the door, she gave fair warning, so no harm done…hopefully.

Mahiru slowly opened the door and there was Mitsuru sitting in his bed with his hand under the pillow like he had had something she wasn't supposed to see. He was safe, sound, and pissed off at her for entering his room, typical day, all ready following in the pattern of operations.

"Umm… yeah umm…good morning. Uhh do you want to come downstairs and get some breakfast?" she asked and the reply to her answer was shorter than it usually was, this time it was a simple, "No." And Mitsuru plopped back down on his bed with his back to her.

'_He's obviously fine so why was I worried?'_ She stood there contemplating why she was worried staring at random objects in his room, but of course there weren't a lot of random objects, so she stared at the next best thing…carpet fibers. '_I've got it! I wasn't worried about his physical well-being; it's his mental well-being that I'm worried about!'_

Immediately the teenage girl rushed over to his bed, grabbed his arm, and started dragging him off the bed. Normally she wouldn't have done this but she didn't feel like arguing with him, sometimes the best bet is to do things directly, other times it was not…it was one of those times when best not to do it directly.

* * *

Mitsuru had been recording his dream when the girl burst in and quickly hid the tape player under his pillow. She had asked if he wanted to get breakfast, since he had no good smart ass reply, how could you when you were just talking about the person you hated the most in an affectionate manner. It made no sense to him so he answered with no.

He regretted that, for about 3 seconds after he said it for Mahiru was dragging him out of bed and half shouted, "C'mon Mitsuru come downstairs and at least be around other people! If your by yourself for too long you go crazy and-and start having conversations with yourself and before you know it you'll end up thinking there are people around you when there aren't!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WOMAN! AND GET THE HELL OFF OF ME NOW!" he roared with such a force that the window in his room vibrated slightly and stopped Mahiru from tugging on him, but still had her arms wrapped around him.

"I heard you talking to yourself. That's dangerous you could go flippin' psychotic or something like that, even though I had no idea what you were talking about." She grunted when her littler body mass tried to move his larger body mass. (a/n: I'm not calling him fat, I'm saying his build is larger than hers) "Now come **_on_**, your going to go down stairs."

The outcome of what she did was that she was finally able to convince Mitsuru to go downstairs, but not before he started with his usual string of obscenities and damnation of everything. He had forgotten about the tape recorder he hid when he started his list of things to be damn in order from least to greatest that went like this:

_1.Things from other planets_

_2.All people in general_

_3.The ice cream truck driver_

_4.Were-wolves_

_5.Vampires_

_6.Foxes_

_7.Bosses_

_8.Akira_

_9.Nozomu_

_10.Oboro_

_11.Puppies, kittens, and Misoka_

_12.Mahiru_

And that was just his general list, the detailed one would be far too long for him to think of so he always went the very general category of 'Dammit All!' much easier to say.

The teenage tengu trudge reluctantly down the steps after the blonde, which had become all of a sudden hyper. He would've laughed at the scene in front of him but; one, he wasn't the kind of person to laugh at all, and second he was just tired. Mahiru had a look of 'I can't believe he did that' on her face.

It was Nozomu sitting at the table peacefully drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper. Akira was sprawled out on the floor unconscious; on his forehead was a very red mark that looked like it came from the spatula. Nozomu looked up from his paper and saw the look on her face.

"What? I told him I didn't want to deal with him until after my coffee, but he didn't listen to me, so he met my friend Mr. Spatula." Looks at the passed out were-wolf and smirks, "I think they got along quite nicely."

Mitsuru hadn't even been there that long before he ran back upstairs and changed into fresh jeans and tee-shirt. "You're all creeping me out right now so I'm leaving," he mumbled as he practically ran down the steps and out the front door, ignoring Mahiru's pleas of at least getting some breakfast before he left for the next like 7 hours or better.

The girl sat down in the chair opposite the vampire and sat immersed in her thoughts. She heard Nozomu talking but didn't pay attention till she heard the words "Strip 'em for me?"

"WHAT?"

_TBC_

**A/N:** Ha I'm leaving this chapter just like that. Why, you ask, because I feel like that is a good stopping point for this chapter. The next chapter should be coming either today or sometime within the next two days, count on Monday or Tuesday though.

Thanks to all my readers

And thanks to these people for reviewing the first chapter:

**inu romance FREAK**

**cubanitaaloloco**

**And to psychedelic aya, who was the first person to review both of my fan fics.**

And to any of those who R&R after I post this chappie I thank you guys also! Well later everybody I'm gonna go do something else now!


	3. Found It

**A/N: **Ahh chapter 3…ok for this note I've got nothing, my brain's fried. I was at school all day during spring break, that's just wrong so wrong. So I keep telling myself it's all for the play, it's all for the play! And SO SORRY! I know it's kinda late!

**Disclaimer: **Same as the 1st chapter.

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recorded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Three: Found It**

Mahiru was shocked, did Nozomu just ask her what she thought he asked her. "Wha-what d-d-did you a-a-as-ask m-me?" she stammered out after she had erupted with the word 'what' causing the half-asleep vampire to come to full alertness, and repeated his question slowly.

"Today we're gonna put fresh sheets on the bed and I was wondering if you would strip'em for me? I'd do it myself but I've gotta supervise the 4 year old in the body of a sixteen year old were-wolf while we move the furniture around down here. What did you think I said?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly all the while mentally slapping herself. "Why do you guys have to move the furniture? After all we just moved it around last month."

'_Hell if I know, maybe Oboro's just going through a phase…Hopefully.'_ Is what he wanted to say but didn't. "I dunno maybe he decided that this layout isn't working for the bar, there are a lot of different kinds of reasons that I have no explanations for."

Mahiru shrugged her shoulders it was a good enough reason for her, even if he had just said 'because' she would've thought that good enough reason. She stretched her arms out in front of her and laid her head down in them, closing her eyes to listen to the quietness of the kitchen.

It wasn't long before the silence was disrupted by a very moan of pain and the words, "Mr. Spatula is a meanie." The were-wolf slowly rubbed the spot where the said object had left an imprint. "Oh, hihi again Mahiru would you like something to eat? How about pancakes?"

She smiled; somehow he always made her laugh no matter what, probably because he acted like an idiot just to make his friends happy. "I'd love pancakes Akira."

* * *

After breakfast was finished and cleaned up, Mahiru changed into a pair of jean shorts and a tee-shirt. Grabbing a laundry basket from the linen closet upstairs, Mahiru started her journey into the different terrains of the bedrooms.

First room she ventured into was Misoka's, which was kept nearly spotless when he was there, but he wouldn't be back again until sometime next month; some sort of business trip apparently. Followed by Oboro's room; then Katsura's, those three rooms were the cleanest.

After them came what were nicknamed the 'Disaster Zones' which consisted of her bedroom, Nozomu's, and Akira's. All of which has some sort of massive amount of junk on the floors and in the closets. Then once she had the sheets from those rooms she went into the last room which everyone, except for the occupant, agreed on the name of, 'The Arid Wasteland'; simply for the fact that, there's nothing in there to make it look lived in.

Mahiru was gently humming the tune to Ryan Cabrera's song, 'True'; a song which she liked very very much, while she was striping the sheets off of Mitsuru's bed. What disrupted her trail of thought was the sound of hard plastic hitting the carpet, bouncing and rolling once it had made contact.

She winced when she heard the sound. '_Oh crap he's gonna massacre me if I broke anything.' _Looking over she saw that the thing that had fell wasn't broken, but laying harmlessly on the ground a few feet away from the bed. "What the-?" Mahiru leaned over and examined it as she picked it up.

"A tape recorder, what would he need with one of these?" Looking around the girl quickly placed it in the basket containing the sheets; she would see what was on it later, for fear the Mitsuru would be back anytime soon. Gathering up the rest of the sheets Mahiru high tailed it out of there faster than she would ever be able to run again.

"Thanks Mahiru, could ya also go and put it by the washer then I'll take it from there?" The vampire asked, trying to keep his temper from boiling over at the were-wolf who kept on asking question after question on just stupid stuff. "Alright, if you want I could do it." She suggested.

Nozomu shook his head 'no'. "I _need _to do it to get away from-AKIRA STOP THAT OR YOUR GOING TO MEET MY GOOD FRIEND MRS. FRYING PAN!" he yelled at Akira who started sing the never ending song, getting on Nozomu's already fried nerves.

Backing slowly away from him Mahiru went and placed the laundry basket by the washer as instructed; taking out the recorder as she did so. Mahiru sprinted up to her room with it, curiosity had gotten the best of her and she needed to find out what was on that tape.

Sitting at her desk she pressed play and heard Mitsuru's voice start after a short pause,

"_I feel like such a damn idiot doing this…"_ The girl didn't get too far into the tape before an all too familiar voice was heard from down below.

"GRR…DAMN YOU YOU STUPID WERE-WOLF!"

'_Yikes he's back gotta hide it, gotta hide it, but where!' _She quickly found a spot, in between the mattress and box-spring of her bed. '_He'll never think about looking for it under there…Hopefully.'_

* * *

Mitsuru stomped up the stairs in a worse than usual sour mood, he had had what was by far the most disturbing zoned out dream-thing of his life. He said the three scariest words ever to the Damn Girl, and she said them back, and then they…**_KISSED!_**

The very thought made him want to throw up, or did it? He wasn't very sure so he decided to record it, that way he would be able to get it out of his head sooner. That way he'd be able to go back to hating her quicker.

In his room he noticed that his sheets had been taken to be washed and that when it hit him like a reinforced brick wall…the tape recorder…it was in his sheets. Maybe it wasn't, maybe it was still under his bed, only one way to find out. Mitsuru's fears where solid, it was in there; one of them would find it or already had. "**_Shit!_**"

_TBC_

**A/N: **Tune in sometime next week to find out what happens!

And thank you to these reviewers: _nozomu,mitsurulover…… Motokonobaka…… cubanitaaloloco…… psychedelic aya…… Crazy Tengu…… chocomintswirl…… and Saiyuki-Lvr_

_And any who review after I post this._


	4. Blackmail! GRR

**A/N: **Well hiya again everybody! Sorry this took longer to update than what my other chapters did. I've been busy with play and track. Over 7 hours at school during spring break…wrong, so wrong. And after Sunday April 17 I'll be able to get chapters out quicker but until then bear with me please. Thanks now enjoy…

**Disclaimer: **Same as 1st chapter.

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recorded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Four: Blackmail! ... Grrr**

'_Shit, shit, shit, shit… Damn, damn, damn. It's gone, it's really bloody fricking gone!'_ Mitsuru stood in the middle of what used to be a semi-clean room turned disaster zone.

He had searched for what seemed like hours when it was only minutes for the lost tape player. It had contained some of his most, in his opinion, most disgusting, ludicrous, and just plain out wrong thoughts of the damn girl.

Wait…the damn girl…THE DAMN GIRL. "Nozomu who collected the bed sheets?" Mitsuru swore up and down that he would get to the bottom of this.

Nozomu was downstairs allowing Akira to be reacquainted with his dear friend Mr. Spatula and Mrs. Frying Pan and yelled up to the tengu, "Mahiru…and if your gonna get a pissy over it then you can meet my friends too." There was a creepy look in his eyes, when talking about his 'friends'.

'_Oh yeah, somebody definitely was disturbed before coffee… WHY THE HELL DO I CARE! That damn woman has the thing that I should have never brought into existence!'_

He turned and stalked out of his room down the hallway, about ready to burst into the girl's room but thought better of it. Instead went for banging on the door. "OPEN UP DAMMIT!"

Mahiru was stirred out of some sort of train of thought by Mitsuru's banging on the door; afraid he would splinter the door into a thousand pieces she rushed over and opened the door. Looking out she saw that, sure enough, Mitsuru was standing there, inhaling deeply as if it took all his strength not to just take her head clean off of her neck.

"Give…it…back…NOW!" he demanded.

She knew what he was talking about, that tape player she found in his room. "I have no idea what you're talking about Mitsuru."

"YOU DO DAMMIT SO GIVE IT BACK NOW!"

"What is so important that is on this thing that you're talking about?" she asked. Mitsuru gulped loudly, very loudly, if she ever found out what was on there it would be the end of his whole entire life as he knew it… a perpetual hell made worse by the fact that he could very well possibly _like_ her? "None of your business ya damn girl so give it back. And don't tell me that you don't know what it is cause I know that you're the one who went around and clean up the sheets today."

She had been found out and she knew it but before she gave it back to him she got an idea, and it was something that she would have never done, and especially not to a person like Mitsuru. "Alright…," Mahiru sighed, "but before I do you have to do one thing for me." Even thought it was something she wouldn't have done how else was she going to find out how he felt about her?

"What?" asked the Tengu in an annoyed voice; hand resting up against the doorframe, fingers drumming against the woodwork to show the obvious annoyance.

Mahiru made sure to draw the words out very slowly so that the guy she had a crush on would be able to understand fully and completely what she said. "I want you to…go on a date with me."

The drumming instantly ceased but it took awhile before the boat carrying the message that the damn girl had sent completely sunk and went under. She…wanted…him…to go…on a date…with her.

"**_WHAT! YOUR OUTTA YOUR FUCKING MIND WORSE THAN USUAL YA DAMN FRICKIN' CRAZY GIRL!"_**

'_I should have expected that reaction…I must now resort to blackmail. That is just so low but hey it's a date with Mitsuru, which will only come along like once every like 5 billion years if that.' _"If you don't I will tell everyone in the vicinity of this bar what is on that tape."

The color of his face drained, "You wouldn't dare. If you do…I will rip that head of yours straight off your neck and spit down your throat." The anger inside of him was rising higher and higher; if given the chance he would kill her, but not in the way he described, it would be worse…much worse.

"I would so dare." The true was that she was actually scared of what he would do, but she had to find out if he really did hate her. If he really did hate her then she was definitely deader tan a doornail.

Mitsuru's anger boiled over, "GRR…DAMN YOU!" Large swirls of wind engulfed him, the frame of his body getting larger as he transformed. (a/n: yeah I know he doesn't really transform that way…at least I think he doesn't.) The large black wings burst forth from his body in an eruption of feathers, followed by the markings of his face; she would pay for…damn he didn't know what.

Mahiru tried to get past him but couldn't, he wouldn't let her. "Nozomu, Akira, HELP!" she yelled out. The above two rushed up the stairs; Nozomu reaching them first since his movement wasn't affected by a frying pan or spatula.

Grasping both of the tengu's arms from behind, Nozomu proceeded to use a few wrestling moves he had learned off the television.

Akira went to the Princess's side to protect her if Nozomu's moves just happened to bring Mitsuru flying in her direction which was very unlikely, but one never does know. "Are you alright Mahiru?" She gave a quick nod of her head to signify she was alright.

"Now," the vampire huffed out, "what the hell is the problem here?" he had the tengu, now back in his human form, pinned on the ground basically eating carpet fibers.

"Geroff ann al tale gammit!"

Nozomu lifted Mitsuru's head by the hair slightly, "Repeat."

"GET OFF AND I'LL TELL DAMMIT!" '_I'm gonna get him for stuffing by face in the damn carpet, that shit is nasty.'_

The other teen reluctantly let go of the teen he had pinned. Mitsuru stood up and brushed off the front of himself of fibers from the carpet. He stared at Mahiru; he knew she'd tell them how-how he…liked her a lot.

'_But how do I know she even listened to it? Simple, I don't know; the only thing I can do is do what she wants…damn it all right here right now.'_ His broke his glare. Turing towards his room he mumbled, "Fine I'll do it."

He stalked off into his room slamming the door uncaring of the two other male's stares of 'what the heck was that about.' Tomorrow for him was going to be a day of hell on earth.

* * *

Mahiru was overjoyed but didn't show it for fear of arousing the suspicion of Nozomu and Akira. "T-thank you guys for coming up here." 

"No problem sis." Akira smiled, ears and tail popping out and waging slightly. "In fact it's time for dinner…" he paused before yelling, "Lets get pizza!" And all agreed that pizza was a good choice.

When the pizza arrived Mahiru volunteered to take Mitsuru's share up to him. She knocked on the door, "Mitsuru? We ordered pizza and I brought some for you." Opening the door she saw that he was gazing intently at a spot on his wall.

"Oh by the way…Hey snap outta it you're creeping me out."

"Thought that was the plan" he glared at her but didn't have the normal anger along with that stare that would kill death it's self.

"Hmph, anyways, I brought you up some pizza and also I want to discuss this little date you and I are going on tomorrow. I figured we could like go see a movie." She handed him his pizza, she knew what movie she wanted to see.

"Alright fine…" he waited for her to leave, when she didn't he practically yelled, "Will you go away now geeze."

"Why?"

"I hate when people try to watch me eat alright, it's creepy."

Mahiru turned and left smiling inwardly…maybe tomorrow wouldn't be as bad as she thought it could possibly turn out.

That though in her head the princess retired early, for she couldn't wait for tomorrow; a date with Mitsuru…that was going to be one priceless moment.

_TBC_

A/N: And I thought I was going to be making a short chapter, oh well. Sorry I've like not posted in like a week or so; I've been busy cutting loose, Footloose. The play was a **major** success, except…I've got the songs stuck in my head and I don't even know all the words AHH! Tune in and find out what evils I shall come up with next.

**Thanks to you guys: **_inu romance FREAK… Writergirl118… nozomu,mitsurulover… scathac's warrior… Motokonobaka… liz… Rosia… and Chibi-Muse-chan(please, calm yourself I'm not trying to be mean I just ask that you not type yourself to death cause that wouldn't be good now would it.) Also thanks to those who review after I post this. AND EVERY BODY CUT FOOTLOOSE!_


	5. He Whats?

**A/N:** This is a chapter that I decided to write for fun. The next chappie will be the date I promise.

**Disclaimer: **Same as the 1st chapter

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recorded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Five: He Whats?**

Sunlight filtered through Mahiru's eyelids; slowly she opened up her crystal blue orbs. After stretching for a few minutes she remembered something that left a huge smile on her face, today was her date with Mitsuru.

The excited teen quickly hopped out of bed and got ready for the day, making sure not to be too dressed up, just a simple pair of jeans and light blue tank top. Mahiru stood in front of the mirror brushing her hair; something about the way she looked didn't seem complete, but what?

'_Oh, I know, lip gloss! I mean, lip gloss isn't that much…plus it's fun to put on being all shiny and what not.'_ She finished brushing her hair and chose a lip gloss that smelt like raspberries. Then went downstairs where she was sure everyone was wondering why she was wearing lip gloss and she would just tell them she was going to hang out with some of her friends; they would believe that, right?

* * *

_  
He stood in the park like his last dream only this time there were no little versions of him or her. It was just the two of them there; no one else, Mitsuru liked it like that. Sure it was still as uncomfortable as hell but at least no one else was there to make him feel like more of an idiot. 'Mitsuru…' she turned toward him leaning closer; her cheeks brightening slightly, 'I- I love you.' She then placed her lips directly on his._

"HOLY SHIT!" Mitsuru woke up before the entire dream was over, "HOLY F-ING SHIT!"

He tried getting out of bed but instead was tangled in covers and fell out of bed flat on his face. "Grr…damn covers." The boy struggled to get out of them; apparently he needed to add a few things to his list of things to damn.

Once out, Mitsuru yanked out of his chest-of-drawers from hell: a white undershirt, a navy blue button down shirt and jeans. '_That dream…was just too wrong. Why am I the one tortured with nightmares of her?'_ He thought pulling his clothes on.

The tengu also wondered what kind of movie they were going to see, no doubt a chick flick. He shuddered; those things were what caused his dreams to start in the first place.

Once he was finished Mitsuru reluctantly trudged downstairs where, to his misfortune, both of his main adversaries and both annoyances were. '_Oh this is going to be just one big sun shiny day isn't it?'_

"I trust you slept well Mitsuru?" Misoka asked not looking up from his paper. "By the sounds of your tossing and turning I wasn't sure, plus the bags under your eyes show signs of stress."

"Ya know what sucks?"

"Vacuum cleaners, plungers, suction cups, am I missing anything?" the fox replied sarcastically.

"You like being a smart ass don't you?"

"One of my many talents Mitsuru."

"Alright you two; Misoka, Mitsuru that's enough now, breakfast is ready!" the were-wolf said hooking an arm around each of them. The look Mitsuru gave Akira would've killed death itself. (a/n: coughcoughmaxwellcoughcough)

All of them were situated at the table and were seated in this order: Mahiru, Mitsuru, Akira, Misoka, and Nozomu.

Nozomu sat quietly, as was everyone else, and sipped his coffee looking at the girl next to him. '_Something's up…she's wearing lip gloss.'_ He then noticed that Mitsuru wasn't wearing the normal 'damn you' expression but instead just gloom, plus he was wearing a button down shirt. Other than when he had to work behind the bar, which was seldom, he never wore them. '_Something is really up.' _

_

* * *

_

After everything was finished and cleaned up Mitsuru instantly left the vicinity of the bar, followed by Mahiru who said she was going to go hang out with some of her friends.

What got the vampire's attention was that she went in the same direction as Mitsuru when all of her friends' houses were in the other direction; the direction they went in lead towards the movies. '_Something is most definitely wrong.'_

"So you noticed also Nozomu."

"Yeah, when did you figure out?"

"He doesn't realize it but…" the fox smirked, "he talks in his sleep."

The curious were-wolf came into the conversation, "Who talks in their sleep? Oh are you guys talking about Mitsuru?"

"Yeah…"

"Hmm…it would seem that everyone knows about him talking in his sleep except for himself and the princess. Things should be very interesting."

Nozomu stood there immersed in thoughts before he asked the 'wise and all knowing', "So…what does he talk about Misoka?"

"His infatuation with the Princess. Truth be told he doesn't really hate her, but in fact loves her; he just doesn't see it himself. But you two probably already guessed that didn't you?"

"Wow Misoka you're really smart!" Akira exclaimed and he then for no reason at all got a frying pan in the face, knocking him unconscious…again.

The teen vampire replaced the frying pan in the kitchen and rush upstairs coming back down a few minutes later dressed in complete black.

"If you're going to follow them I suggest going in normal clothes, you stick out now more than usual."

"Really? Darn." He rushed back upstairs and came down again in his normal attire. "Later Misoka, I'm goin out." And left leaving the fox with an unconscious were-wolf in the front hallway.

The 21 year old stood there for a moment before walking into one of the studies that housed a number of different books and stared at them. "It's going to be one of those times, I can tell." He sighed, "Oh _joy._"

_TBC_

**A/N:** I know that this chapter was a bit off topic but I wanted to put it in there…well, actually it just kinda happened. Expect the next chapter soon, and right now I really wish I had the sound track to FootLoose so that I could play "Let's hear it for the boy" while I'm writing the next chapter buuuuut I don't.

**Thanks to you guys: **_scathac's warrior… Motokonobaka… cubanitaaloloco… shinkanneko (don't we all?)… Chibi-Muse-chan… and everyone who reviews after I post this._

P.S.: just thought of something, if you have any questions about stuff feel free to ask just not the personal stuff and I'll answer them. Later and everybody cut foot loose! (Gah not again!)


	6. The Date pt1

**A/N:** Ahh, another chappie… 00 I've got nothing for this note.

**Disclaimer:** Hmm…well Crescent Moon, nope; Phantom of the Opera, nope; Kings Island, nope; evil mind that created this…yeah

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recoded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Six: The Date part 1**

Nozomu stopped and rushed back in the bar. "Wait a minute! Misoka, when the hell did you get back, you're not supposed to be back till next month!"

"Oh, Oboro decided that he didn't need me to help with the business transactions, so I came back. Now if your going to follow them go now." That being said Nozomu practically flew out the door and towards the mall and movies where Mahiru and Mitsuru were at.

* * *

"Why, may I ask are we friggin' _shopping!_" the tengu asked in annoyance, he want to this thing to be done and over with as fast as possible.

The blonde smirked at him, "Because Mitsuru the movie doesn't start for about…" she glanced at the watch on her slim wrist, "another hour and forty-five minutes." Mahiru went back to looking at the different clothes in the window in front of her. "Besides, the movie is only the first part of the date."

The little color that was normally on his face drain from it as she said that. '_Only the f-first part! Oh shit what the hell did I get myself into? Stupid Mitsuru! Stupid stupid stupid!'_ At this point he had started to bang his head into the wall that he had been leaning against, for this was, as he recorded it in his mind, the most horrible day of hell ever.

The girl had stood silently watching his actions from the corner of her eye. First, he had just been grumbling and she thought his eye might have been twitching, but now it was a full blown battering of his head against the wall. She had to stop him but she knew that her telling him to stop would only get her a 'shut the hell up damn girl' comment or something along those lines…So how would she do it?

Suddenly a quick little light bulb went 'ping.' "Hey Mitsuru, two pretzels were walking down the street one was a salted." (a/n: I would like to thank my sister for this joke because she told it to me.)

"Huh? What the?" the aqua haired boy stopped; he obviously didn't get the joke. "What the hell do I care about pretzels walkin' down a street?" He glared at her with, surprisingly not anger, but confusion that made his forehead wrinkle in a deep thought process that was never used very often. "Two pretzels," he murmured to himself, "walking down the street what the hell kinda logic is that?"

Mahiru sweat dropped, "Uhh…Mitsuru, you do get that it was a joke right?" He was still pondering in his deep thought. "Hey Mitsuru are you listening? Mitty?"

"What the fuck do you just call me woman!" he yelled getting almost every person within a ten foot radius of them attentions. Seeing this he quieted down and using his most dangerous, you better not cross me tone he threatened, "If you ever call me Mitty again, by the gods I will find the worst tortures known to the Lunar Race and mankind and practice each and every one very slowly as to prolong your suffering _Princess._" The last word full and dripping with disdain like poisoned honey.

She gulped loudly, for she knew that his threat, even though it wouldn't actually be to that caliber, he would carry out some sort of thing that had pain, suffering, and eventually ended in death. "Al-alright, I-I won't ever call you that a-again Mitsuru."

It was at that point that she realized that he was extremely close to her, close enough that she could se her own reflect in his chocolate like eyes; and they stood like that for several minutes. She was sure that, to a person who hadn't heard the previous threat, it looked like they were going to kiss. "Oh look shoes."

Immediately she somewhat jogged over to a window with shoes in it. '_Whoa, kinda creepy. Note to self, be careful when you anger people you have crushes on, they may just get close enough you want to kiss them.'_ She tried to imagine what it would be like, kissing Mitsuru, but every time she did something bad happened or it looked just plain wrong. It was one that was wrong looking; she shook her head to clear the image as fast as possible.

"I don't get it…" He had his hand on his chin in some sort of thinking process staring straight a head at glass display, "What do you women find so interesting about shopping and buying clothes that you never wear? It's so…stupid."

"Really?" she drawled out, "Kinda like getting mad at a person for no reason, it's just so…" impersonating him she went, "stupid."

"Smartass…" the tengu looked in a different direction; could they really be having some sort of conversation? Mitsuru didn't know for he had never talked with any one person of very long, the longest he had talked with a person and not done any _physical_ harm was, at the current moment, right now.

* * *

From over by the coffee shop Nozomu chuckled at the look on the confused tengu's face. Shaking his head he went back to looking like he was deeply emerged in a copy of the newspaper, whispering to himself, "I bet the guy is having some sort of internal war with himself right about now."

* * *

They had been walking around for sometime looking in all the different shops, once Mahiru had even tried to get Mitsuru to get a whole other wardrobe at some store he had never been to called American Eagle.(a/n: that's the only one I could think of so please don't be angered by it.) That plan had crashed and burned completely, the last thing he wanted to look like was a Nozomu wannabe. 

"Can we just go to the damn movie now?" the teen boy complained like a five year old; he wanted to be done with this whole shopping thing.

"You want to sit in a movie theater before the movie starts for twenty minutes?" she questioned. With the way he was being fidgety suggested that he wouldn't be able to handle it for very long.

"Hell yes."

"Umm…okay I guess we are going to the movies now then."

For the next twenty minutes the two sat in a semi-dark theater. In the theater, it was only couples, lots of couples; most of the guys didn't look too happy to be there like they were dragged there by their own free will.

"What the hell are we seeing anyway?"

"Phantom of the Opera. Is that a problem?"

"Yes, I don't wanna see no chick flick."

"It's not a chick flick," she defended, "it's an action romance!" Soon after the lights started to dim causing Mahiru to go, "Ooh it's starting, so shhh." The blue orbs of the girl immediately became plastered to the screen catching every detail that came up.

"Whatever." He muttered sinking down low into his chair, dozing off after half an hour into the film.

Sometime later he was being shaken awake by someone going, "Mitsuru wake up everyone is staring!"

He had been dreaming some messed up version of the movie they were at and had started talking in his sleep. Opening his eyes he saw all the people staring at him making him flush a color of crimson. "D-didn't get much sleep last night, exams to study for." He lied, "Now go back to watching the movie."

The somewhat upset movie goers turned back around and continued watching their film. "Wow that was a quick cover up, I'm surprised you even know what an exam is," Mahiru whispered.

"I do have some brains woman," he whispered back, staying silent for the rest of the movie.

Phantom of the Opera had finished and Mitsuru bolted out of the theater. "Alright the movie is over; let's go back to the bar."

Mahiru gave him a small smirk, "The movie maybe over but the date isn't, the movie was only half, and we've still got a whole day ahead of us Mitsuru."

_TBC_

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long to get put up! I've been working on my art exam that was due Monday that is now pushed to Wednesday, either way I've gotta work my butt off on stuff. And if Mitsuru doesn't seem like his normal self, I am also sorry for that. The other half of the date should be posted by sometime next week. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Oh and please read my fic Scary Movie, I think it's kinda funny hope you do to. Plus if you're wondering, 'what the hell is up with the first part?' well, I goofed. I forgot he was away on business, that's when I shrug my shoulders, impersonate Jim Carry in The Grinch 'Oh well', and find some sort of reason to remedy the situation.

_Thanks you guys: _

_**Korii Shoujo **(thanks, I love yours too)…_

_**ne-ma-pa-sa-ra** (can't you just foretell all the torture I'm going to put him through)… **Writergirl118** (here's the update sorry it wasn't sooner)… _

_**scathac's warrior** (I'm glad that it makes you laugh, laughter helps hugs make the world go 'round)… _

_**cubanitaaloloco** (I'm happy it was damn good, normally I'm not really good at stuff)…_

_**ann** (Like I said before, laughter helps hugs make the world go 'round)… _

_**psychedelic aya** (it makes me smile to know that I have people rolling on the ground laughing)… _

_**Chibi-Muse-Chan** (well I updated, I hope to be writing more soon!)…_

_**jesusgirl883** (I'm like making people laugh, I'm glad I could make you laugh)…_

_**mitsurunozomulover **(I'll try my best to keep up the writing so you can keep up the reading)…_

_**Motokonobaka** (Ok I'll keep goin'!)_

_And to everybody who reads after I post this! Later folks! _: )


	7. The Date pt2

**A/N:** Hehe chapter seven…_long pause_…umm…yeah 7 it's the second part of the date in which I intend to torture the ever "_loveable_" Mitsuru. Also in this chapter is an amusement park that is close to my 'neck of the woods' and since it's the only one I know about I'm using it in the story even though it's in Ohio not Japan, so please don't be angered by me. The one thing I wonder about this thing is how long it's going to be…possibly 10 chapters, maybe more? Not positive but I'll worry about it later, right now I have to torture Mitsuru.

**Disclaimer: **Same as the 6th chapter.

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recoded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Seven: The Date part 2**

Mitsuru was mentally slapping the crap out of himself; he had forgotten that there were two parts to this damn date thing. "Alright then, what's the second half of this…" with a disgusted look on his face he asked, "_date, _buying more shoes?"

Mahiru shook her head, "Nope. Nothing like that, but I think that you might like this part."

"Does it have anything to do with killing you?"

"Is that all you think about? Just death and destruction?"

"Yeah pretty much, and getting stronger and finally beating the shit outta that damn fox." He balled up one of his fists to show emphasis on the beating part, but death and destruction and things along those lines weren't the only things he thought of. Sometimes, most of the time now, he found himself thinking about what _she_ was doing; that was something that he most definitely didn't like.

The blonde's eyes just stared at him for a few moments before moving on with what she had been previously saying. "No, it doesn't involve killing me, but some of it does involve height and speed…"

"I'm not interested then," the tengu grumbled.

"Remember our deal? You're breaking it if you don't go." That being said he reluctantly followed her out of the mall and to a bus stop.

* * *

Nozomu had stood in the shadows of the doorway until he saw them leave the area; he then stepped out, a pale look on his face._ 'Deal? Are you telling me that she blackmailed him? Her, Mahiru Shiraishi blackmailed Mitsuru…' _He then started laughing, bracing himself against his knees and the wall behind him. True that wasn't at all like the Mahiru he knew, but for Mitsuru to give in; not only was it odd, it was fricking hysterical, the tough ass tengu…

Nozomu couldn't finish any of his thought processes, for every time he got to the fact that it was Mitsuru, his laughter increased to the point where he thought he might even pass out if vampires were truly able to pass out. "Get…a hold…hahaha… of yourself Nozomu. Ya gotta…hahahahaha… find out… where they're going." The vampire took a few deep breaths before he straightened up and silently followed the two.

* * *

"Where the hell are we going anyway?" the tengu asked showing clearly his annoyance at not being told. The only answer he got was a, "You'll see soon enough," followed by a few giggles. It wasn't the 'you'll see' that bothered him; it was the giggles which probably meant something totally girly which sent a shiver to his spine.

'_No one ever defined what true fear is, but I'm sure that somewhere out there there's some plaque or something that says, 'True fear is pink and girly.' Now if only I knew where to look…'_

"Oh, here we are Mitsuru!"

Looking up he saw what the bus had approached; it was an amusement park, Paramount's Kings Island to be specific. He did admit to himself that this wasn't a bad choice, even though he himself hadn't been there.

In a somewhat high pitched voice she asked him while tugging at his sleeve, "Isn't this exciting?"

"Umm...I guess so…" Mitsuru was shocked, were those the words that just came out of his mouth? They couldn't have been he never got excited about such trivial stuff as this, never; not even when one of his foster families told him he would get to go to preschool where he got to do fun stuff. '_Then again who would be excited?'_

They stepped off of the bus in front of the park; screams from some of the larger rides could be heard faintly from where they were standing. "Let's go Mitsuru!" the Princess exclaimed rushing off, dragging a somewhat grumpy tengu along for the ride; both unaware of the blonde vampire that had been following them all day and was now staring wide-eyed at the place she had brought them to. He did have to admit, Mahiru did a good job at deciding where to go for dates.

Inside the park it looked ten times bigger than it did from outside. Mitsuru unaware of what he was doing stared at everything looking like a little kid. Mahiru's face broke into a large smile watching his reaction to everything, even though when he caught her smiling at him the look vanished and he lied about it not being that impressive.

"Oh come off it Mitsuru, how many times have you been to one of these places?" when she didn't get a reply Mahiru once again dragged Mitsuru in a direction of a white wooden structure; the path lined with rides such as antique cars, bumper cars, a large set of swings, and things of that nature.

"Forwards or backwards Suru?"

Ignoring the name 'Suru' he replied, "Is there a difference?" A shake of the head was the answer he got. "Alright then, backwards." The tengu then followed the girl who was bobbing up and down as she skipped to the line for the Backwards Racer.

"You're gonna love it Suru." She exclaimed, "And after this we can go on Flight of Fear, then Top Gun, then the Beast, and Son of Beast. Oh we gotta go on Drop Zone and Delirium and White Water Canyon and…" Mitsuru placed a hand firmly over her mouth.

"Do you ever shut up? Even the were-wolf doesn't talk this much, plus the ride is here now." He removed his hand and rolled his eyes as he got into the car followed by Mahiru.

Slowly, it pulled out of the loading area and creaked up a steep hill. "So, tell me why exactly is this called the Racer? It's slowly than all get out." As he was saying this the cars with the passengers facing the front also started its slow rise up the hill.

"You'll see." In that instant the cars went hurdling downwards on the tracks, and almost as soon as they had started, the cars went in separate directions on their tracks; still racing each other at top speed. Within a few minutes the two came off the ride, and surprisingly Mitsuru had liked the feeling of feeling the wind in his face without having to do anything but sit there.

"Is that why?"

"Yep, you like?"

"Yeah, it was…neat" '_What the hell? I'm talking to her like she's my best friend, I hate her…Maybe that's to strong of a word, dislike very much.'_

Afterwards they went on a variety of different rides, so far their favorites had been Delirium and Flight of Fear; Delirium was like a pendulum that spun very slowly and Flight of Fear was a roller coaster inside a warehouse type of place where when it took off you had to have your head back since it went so fast when taking off.

Over by Delirium Mahiru got an idea that was some what on the mean side but she couldn't help but follow out her plan; she led Mitsuru over to a bridge over a ride called Congo Falls. They stood there for a few minutes, backs to the ride and from the corner of her eye she saw the boat that carried the riders reach the top of the U-shaped turn that came before the down-hill drop where any on the bridge would be soaked.

"Umm…Mitsuru I gotta go to the bathroom so will you wait right here and I'll be back soon."

"Whatever."

He watched as she jogged down the bridge and over to the girls bathrooms, but before she entered the bathroom she turned around and stared at him giggling. '_What the hell is so funny she has to stare and laugh?'_

His answer came by a roaring sound, "Why that little-," his words were washed out by the cascade of water that surrounded him. Any smaller sized children on the bridge were knocked back several feet by the blast of water.

Mitsuru sloshed off the bridge looking like a drowned, aqua-colored rat over to Mahiru who was trying hard to conceal her laughter. "You really had to go to the bathroom didn't you ya damn girl."

Stomping off, Mahiru knew she had upset him and she chased after him. "Mitsuru! Mitsuru, I'm sorry; my friends did that to me to and I thought of it as a kind of a induction ceremony thingy and I passed it onto you." She tried desperately to explain, for fear the mood of the day might turn sour.

The day had been going good; she had been able to get Mitsuru just a little bit out of his shell which was a major accomplishment with him. But thanks to her rotten luck she went and spoiled the day with a stupid prank that she had had done on herself also, and started mentally kicking herself in the rear.

Mitsuru looked over at Mahiru who was now staring at the ground ready to burst into tears at any moment. The tengu felt a pang of guilt but didn't know what to say or do. He thought about saying sorry, but that was just a little to far, so was any bodily contact; a joke maybe?

He pondered over this while they silently walked through a quiet patch of the park. She sniffled a bit to keep her tears from over flowing.

'_Great Mitsuru, just great ya made her cry.'_

"Two muffins…" he finally spoke.

"Huh?"

"Two muffins were in an oven. One leaned over to the other and said, 'man it's hot in here.' The other yelled 'Ahhh! A talking muffin!'" his voice being as gentle as it knew how to be.

The girl stared at him for a few minutes before finally breaking down into laughter. "That was funny. I didn't know you knew any jokes Mitsuru, this is the first time we've been around each other and you have tried to kill me."

He turned a shade darker, but it wasn't noticeable in the last rays of the setting sun. "What's that supposed ta mean?" he defended.

"It's nice to be together without any fighting."

The sun had completely set now and the teen boy was, to put it, was glowing like a red light bulb. Somebody _enjoyed_ being with him; he didn't admit it but he liked being with her as well. One day he'd tell her but not now. '_Sooner than later.'_ said the side of his mind that he would rather block out.

"Ooh Mitsuru look at the fireworks!" Mahiru gasped as they exploded over head. "Aren't they pretty?"

"Yeah," he whispered, it was one of the most awkward moments of his damn life. "Don't you think we should head back before they send the Calvary of the wolf and the vampire with a frying pan."

"What's his deal with that thing anyway?"

"HIIK"

"Huh? HIIK?"

"Hell if I know, all I know is that that frying pan is like his most favorite thing in the world."

'_If only they knew…I'M STANDING TEN FEET BEHIND THEM!" _the above mentioned vampire yelled in the free space of his mind.

The fireworks had ended and the park closed. Mitsuru and Mahiru hailed a taxi to take them back to the bar. He noticed something was wrong when they got there and Mahiru didn't budge.

'_She must be worn out from the long day a fell asleep._ _Shit she fell asleep, that means I've gotta carry her inside and if they're there…Dammit!'_ Reluctantly and carefully he picked up the sleeping princess and carried her inside.

"Hello Mitsuru, you're home early…and I see you've brought the Princess back as well."

'_Dammit…Misoka.'_

_TBC_

**A/N: **I hope you guys liked that chappie, sorry if it's a bit on the longer side and that Mitsuru was well…a bit messed up, ok he was just outta whack to me but it had to happen in order for this thing to go any where. I also ask that you read the fic by PsYcHoWoLfIe, cause she's one of my best friends. Well see ya later I'm gonna go cut FootLoose and stare at a hot Kevin Bacon. Also any questions are welcomed and…I FINISHED MY ART EXAM! I'm happy: )

_Thanks to you guys: **Writergirl118**... **inu romance FREAK**…** ne-ma-pa-sa-ra** (I'm glad, I thought no one would get it but they did)… **jesusgirl883**… **Elen**… **I DO NOT OWN DBZ** (out of curiosity I have two questions, one are you Chibi-Muse-Chan? I don't keep up well with this kind of stuff. Second is it only half cause that was part of the date and this is the other half?)…** scathac's warrior** (I was going to do that in this chapter cause I saw that and thought, not a bad idea. Only problem is that I don't have any names)… **Motokonobaka**… **PsYcHoWoLfIe** (its fun until somebody tortures Akira, then it's hysterical) : )… And to all those who review after I post this!_


	8. A Denial

**A/N:** Well, it's chapter 8. I'm seriously running out of author's note to put at the beginning of stuff so you may just start getting random lyrics from songs I listen to while I type this. But, I will try to keep my insanity to myself and think up stuff instead of lyrics. Oh yeah, also, please read one of my best friend's fic. It's called 'Moon and the Stars' by PsYcHoWoLfIe, I'd much appreciate it and if you're in the mood for something with a train in it check out 'Festival of Lights.' One more thing I promise, I'd like to thank the band Nirvana, for I got some inspiration for this next chapter (like the name) from their song lyrics, in fact I'm listening to the song right now and on with chapter 8!

**Disclaimer:** What else can I write, I don't have the rights. Geeze I don't even own my disclaimer, it's from Nirvana's song 'All Apologies'. _Sigh_

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts' (except in dreams then it's talking)_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recoded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Eight: A Denial **

'_Damn, it just had to be Misoka didn't?'_ The tengu cursed in his mind along with a few very long strings of random obscenities. As usual, what he hoped wouldn't happen, happened.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?" He glared at the fox who was standing in the door way. The suspicious thing was the vampire that was, or seemed it be, passed out from some extreme running. Mitsuru being the wise one that he is though merely passed it off as chasing Akira with his beloved frying pan.

Misoka cleared his throat, "Well, I was going to send Akira or Nozomu to retrieve her since it was getting so late; but you brought her back so it seems I won't have to awaken either of them."

A snort was heard along with a 'whatever' as he proceeded to the stairs with the sleeping Mahiru.

"Odd thing is, I called her friend's house earlier this evening, and they said she had never even planned to hang out with them today. Do you know what that was about?"

Mitsuru stopped dead in his tracks; he was glad that his back faced Misoka, for he was able to not worry about how badly he was blushing. "I have no idea what the hell that's about for I don't give a shit what she does. Now will you quit bugging me already it gets pretty damn annoying." He stomped up the stairs then, unaware of the smirk on the fox's face.

Mitsuru had returned to his normal self, damning everything and everyone in sight along with strings of vulgar language tossed in the mix. The one thing he was most likely damning the most was now squirming around in his arms before finally finding a comfortable position and snuggling into his chest.

'_Dammit, can't she keep still for five minutes?'_ he cursed once again as she moved around for the umpteenth time. After what seemed like an eternity the pair finally made it to the girl's bedroom; picking his way slowly across the 'sea of junk' the tengu made it to her bed.

He put her down and was about stand up straight when, half way through his plan, he was stopped. Looking down he saw what had stopped him. "Damn you've got to be kidding me!" The worst of the worst of 'things that make situations awkward' had happened; Mahiru had a death grip on his shirt.

'_Shit, what am I gonna do?'_ He pondered this for sometime. If any of the other members were to come in he'd be in even deeper shit.

There was only one thing that the tengu could think to do that didn't involve him having to wake her up or wait for her to do so…take off his shirt. '_I thank thee right now whoever thought of button down shirts.'_ He thought, carefully removing each button from its hole.

After accomplishing that the boy put his arms over his head and slipped the shirt off, landing on his butt in the middle of the floor with a soft 'thud'. Looking up the Princess was sleeping soundly, the shirt now hung limply in her hands. He'd get it back later but currently he was making sure no one saw him emerge from her room without his shirt, he could only imagine what kind of hell he would go through with that.

Quickly the tengu ran from the princess's bedroom to his own. Once in there he let out a sigh of relief, "I hope I never have to do something like that again…"

A voice inside of his head thought other wise, '_Oh come on, you know that you enjoyed being with her today.'_

"I did not!" Mitsuru yelled aloud only to once again be told how much he really did. He continued on like that for several minutes before he realized he had been arguing with himself; therefore, yelling at thin air.

Plopping face first onto his bed Mitsuru groaned; never in his life had he been as confused as right now. Did he hate her? Like her as a friend? Or possibly _love_ her? All of this was pouring into his brain at once, over loading his entire system.

"I…don't…" he said to himself as he slowly drifted off sleep, "I don't know what to think anymore…" the last image he saw was of his barren wall before the fitful sleep over came him.

* * *

_There she was here once again at the park. She always wondered what was so special about that place anyway; it was just a park. Quietly she walked through it and remembered why it was so special. A long time ago she had met her first "crush" there, but she didn't remember his name._

_Mahiru walked over to the swings and sat down. 'How long has it been since I've been here, four, five years?' she asked herself._

_From the shadows a low chuckle was emitted, 'Yet it still hasn't changed since we were last here has it?'_

'_Huh?' Mahiru turned and saw that it was none other than the aqua haired teenaged tengu himself. 'M-M-Mitsuru, what are you doing here?' The color of her cheeks turned to a bright shade of pink as he sat down on the swing next to her._

'_Isn't it obvious? I'm here because I'm a figment of your subconscious, or something big and technical like that.' This was the first time she had ever seen him being laid back and talking out right with her. 'And also…I have something to tell you. It's been on my mind for a very long time now; I just haven't really known how to say it.'_

_Was this really happening? Was he going to say what she thought he was going to say? So many things had crossed her mind at that time leaving her in a state of shock. 'It's okay; you can tell me what's ever on your Mitsuru; after all that's what friends are for.'_

'_You see…that's the thing…' He looked her directly in the eyes, 'Mahiru, I want to be more than friends. I…I love you.'_

* * *

That was as far as it got as she was thrust violently from the dreaming world into the world of reality by her alarm clock. "Stupid alarm clock, no wonder he's always damning things like you; you always ruin good dreams but never nightmares." The girl grumbled at her alarm clock.

As she slid out of bed she noticed the piece of cloth material in her hands. '_Wait isn't this…OhMiGosh it is; it's Mitsuru's shirt. He's gotta be so mad at me by now.' _

Slowly she rose off her bed and walked out into the hall. Lifting the shirt to eye-level, thinking out loud, "May I should put this in his room, incase he comes after me- I mean it. Incase he comes looking for it." Mahiru then proceeded down the hall and to see that the tengu's door was wide open.

"I'll just set this here." Timidly she set the shirt down on the nearby desk chair and scurried out of the room as quickly as possible.

Soon after she was back in her normal bubbly mood as she hoped down the stairs. Mahiru reached the bottom step and leaped off onto and slipped on the polished hardwood floor. She waited for the bone jarring impact but instead heard an 'uff' from another person as they caught her in mid-fall.

"Be more careful dammit, we don't need your blood all over the place. Cause when that happens I've got even more of a mess to clean up." He said after a moment, and Mahiru recognized it immediately; it was Mitsuru.

"Umm…o-okay. Thanks for catching me."

"Whatever." Mitsuru muttered as he sulked down the hallway and added before he entered the kitchen, "Breakfast is ready by the way, it French toast, possibly pancakes; I dunno one of the two."

'_He's acting…weird. Then again this is the first time I've seen him actually tired looking, like he didn't get enough sleep last night or something.'_ "Oh stop being a worry wart Mahiru, it's ridiculous how much you worry!" She laughed to herself, entering the kitchen shortly afterwards.

"Hihi Mahiru!" Akira Grinned joyfully from over by the stove where he was preparing for when the bar opened up this afternoon. "Isn't it cool that Oboro trusts us to be able to run the bar by ourselves?" He started babbling on as he went about his job of cleaning.

"Akira…" Nozomu sighed, "Please shut up."

"But I'm excited about tonight, it's been almost three weeks since we've been opened!" the werewolf complained to the vampire.

"Just be glad Mrs. Frying Pan is in the dish washer along with Mr. Skillet cause if they weren't…"

"Nozomu that's enough out of you." Misoka snapped, making the vampire slink back in his chair.

After a few minutes Akira questioned, "Who's Mr. Skillet?"

"Mrs. Fry Pan's husband." Nozomu grumbled, "Dense moron of a werewolf." Earning another glare from the fox demon.

Mitsuru was in the fridge searching around for something when he mumbled "Morons, the lot of them."

What he said didn't go unnoticed from Misoka, if fact, it gave him grounds to start annoying the tengu out of damn misery. "Oh Mitsuru, by the way, you never did tell us where you went yesterday." He tensed up but acted like he didn't hear what the other said. "Mitsuru," the 'leader' of the group asked in a low voice, "where were you yesterday?"

"NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS YA DAMN ANNOYING FOX!" He roared. Never ever would he ever admit that he was willing out somewhere with that damned woman. Just thinking of how Akira would act sent a shiver up his spine.

To protect his 'image' Mitsuru slammed the door of the fridge shut and stomped down the hall.

"Uhh…Mitsuru be careful when you're walking cause it's still…" Mahiru warned to late as a loud crash was heard followed by an extremely loud 'fuck', "…slick…"

Of the three remaining boys, two were laughing their heads off and the other was smirking; he knew where Mitsuru had been. '_I think I'll let him sweat a bit more over the whole ordeal.'_

"Nozomu, Akira, get a hold of yourselves." Misoka commanded, "We've got to start cleaning up and what not. After all we're opening back up tonight…" The two just stood there for a moment. "You know the drill…Move IT!"

"SIR, YES SIR!" they replied and hurried on their separate ways to get ready for that night; Mahiru also helping them.

Mitsuru had been out all day and had wound up sitting by a lake in the park as slow but steadily building down poor of rain came on.

_TBC_

**

* * *

A/N: I feel like this isn't one of my better chapters and since I was so late in updating I must say that I'm extremely sorry and you all may now kill me…just please make it quick and painless. Anyways, I feel bad for not updating, and I'm happy because soon it's SUMMER VACATION! This means that I'll be on the computer even more, meaning higher rate of things being updated sooner. Well, I've got nothing else to say but I do ask again that you read my friends story please. Thanks and later everyone!**

**Thanks to you guys who read view!**

_**jesusgirl883** -not yet anyways …  
__**I DO NOT OWN DBZ** – Here's more I'll update A.S.A.P …  
__**Motokonobaka** –I think Mahiru was somewhat conscious when she grabbed Mitsuru's shirt …  
__**inu romance FREAK** - Thanks, By the way how's your fic coming along? …  
__**ne-ma-pa-sa-ra** - So do I 'Mitsuru your nickname is Mitty again!' "Dammit!" Anyways, I do have a special nickname that I'm waiting to use.  
__**Korii Shouji** –I'd like to thank a kid at school that told the muffin joke I never though people would like it as much as they did …  
__**shinkannrko** –don't worry it will happen I guarantee it …  
__**scathac's warrior** –who ever knew Mitsuru was capable of this thing called nice …  
__**Writergirl118** –sugar highs are fun and I've got to have Mitsuru go through a little torture F.A.M. style …  
__**master twinke #1** –I have updated  
__**it burns** –I'll try more Akira bashing, my friend hates Akira bashing. It's now my favorite past time …  
__**astarael22** –your hopes are correct, glad ya love it …  
__**Elen** –Hmm…I'm not sure if Nozomu will blackmail but it is possible …  
__**PsYcHoWoLfIe** –hmm…just to spite you…no. besides don't I do enough for you I mean I tpye your chapters, but you know mesa still likes you, that why I torture you …  
__**Nightmare Alchemist **–Glad you liked it sorry I made your ribs hurt …  
__**DeepRedSky** –Don't worry it shall not be forgotten and for those that were forgotten I weep for them for they were good._

_And thanks to those who review after I post this. Later!_


	9. That Night

**A/N: **It's official… I have been marked by aliens with the number 75. Nah, as much as some wish that were true it's not, I had my last track meet Monday and had to have a number put on me. Some people are asking 'When are they going to kiss already?' the answer is 'soon people' done with the voice of my religion teacher Mr. B. And I forgot to say in the last chapter to ne-ma-pa-sa-ra, that no I'm not from Ontario, Canada. I'm from Kentucky, the part across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio. That's all I have to say for now on with chapter nine.

**Disclaimer:** I'm sorry you must have me confused with someone else, I don't own Crescent Moon.

**Word Key:**

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts' (except in dreams then it's talking)_

_Dreams_

"_Tape Recorded Words"_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Nine: That Night**

'It's raining pretty hard out there' and 'Geeze would ya look at that rain' were what most of the people were talking about at the bar that night as Mahiru served them their drinks and other such things. The rest of the boys from the Lunar Race were at the normal positions, except Mitsuru.

He had been gone all day since he got pissed at Misoka and hadn't been back since, worrying Mahiru to no end. "Is he back yet?" she asked Akira through the window that orders ready to be served were waiting.

"Nope..." he stated; seeing her fidgety he add, "Relax it will take a lot more than rain to kill him."

"I suppose you're right…Oops better get these orders to the customers."

The night continued on and by 11:00 p.m. the number of customers dwindled down to what it was usually like on a regular night at 8:00 p.m.

"Akira, now I'm worried, he's been gone forever. What if he was like, I dunno struck by lightning or something?"

"Princess," Misoka said as he fixed someone a White Russian, "Akira said it himself before; it will take a lot more than rain to kill him, and I'm sure that the same goes for lightning. Any moment now he'll probably stomped through the door and say something along the lines of 'damn stupid rain, it should go to hell.'"

A few minutes later the back door busted open and for the second time that week Mitsuru looked like a drowned aqua-colored rat. "Fucking rain, it should go down to hell dammit." He grumbled.

"Yes it should Mitsuru, and then when you go there it won't be so hot." The vampire who had gotten off the stage for the rest of the night, which would only be the next half hour, smirked.

"Fuck you."

The two were about to go into a fight when a stern voice commanded, "Alright already both of you. Nozomu, since you're not on stage anymore, go start serving drinks. Princess, will you help Mitsuru get himself cleaned up; we can't afford for him being sick."

Mitsuru sulked towards the back set of stairs making a 'squish-squish' noise every time he took a step. "I can take care of myself ya know." He mumbled as the blonde followed behind him silently.

"Where were you anyway, you were gone all day. I…I was worried."

"Since when the hell have I cared whether you care or not!" he spat turning around halfway up the stairs so he was higher up than she was, "And also, you owe me something."

"What are talking about Mitsuru?" she asked innocently.

He stared at her blankly, "You're shittin me. C'mon." Grabbing the girl by the hand he yanked her up the rest of the stairs and into his bedroom. "You know damn good and well what I'm talking about!" he snarled after shutting the door, blocking off her only exit.

She shrank back in fear, Mitsuru had been know to threaten her, but how tightly he grabbed her, Mahiru was sure that there were going to be bruises on her arm. The girl tried not, but she let a small whimper escape when she felt his grip tighten when he dragged her in there.

Mitsuru realized soon after he had slammed the door shut what he was doing, he was dragging her into _his_ room; that was wrong, and could be very wrong when taken in a completely different manner. He sighed, almost like he was defeated and said softly, "Forget it, just forget it. Go on, get outta here…I know how much you want to." He stepped aside as Mahiru walked slowly out the door.

She continued on and slipped into her own room. Once there she went over to her mattress; she dug the tape recorder out when an idea came into her head, '_He asked for the tape **player**, not the actual **tape**…' _She smiled, fair was fair right? Finders keepers, losers weepers; well in this case it was more like loser, deranged pissed off tengu, not an exact good thing but… one must find out the truth through means that aren't necessarily their style.

The blonde took the tape out and place it in the same hiding place as the tape recorder had been. After that she went over to the desk, Mahiru figured an apology note was better than actually telling him at this moment. She scribbled one out quickly setting the claimed object by it; Mahiru thought it best to wait for a little while, incase Mitsuru's temper was still inflamed when a snowball would stand a better chance in hell.

Reclining on her bed she waited, an hour, another half hour, until finally sleep made her eye droop lower and lower till all she saw was the insides of them. Mitsuru's thing could wait till tomorrow couldn't it?

Mitsuru yanked and ripped at the wet clothes that hugged his body, he hated that. The last time he wore just a traitorous white muscle-tee was when he was fourteen; Mitsuru wasn't sure how he got there, but he was at a party where there were older kids, alcohol, and a swimming pool.

They had picked him, of all people, to throw in the pool, only thankfully the shallow end that was only three feet deep or else he probably would've drowned. Once out the shirt showed what little bit of muscle formation he had and clung damply to his skin. It was uncomfortable, the wet shirt and the drunken human chicks staring at him like he was a god or something like that, causing him to bolt out of there in a flash and he hadn't been to a party or worn a muscle-tee ever since.

Once off he threw them in a laundry basket and grabbed a pair of clean boxers and put them on. The tengu felt like he was drained of all his energy and didn't bother finding other clothes to put on over top the boxers. He fell onto his bed falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, bad mistake. That allowed the part of his brain that was always running on thoughts of the damn girl, all the time it wanted to tell him how he'd done bad.

"_You know Mitsuru, you shouldn't have grabbed her like that. You love her you damned idiot; you shouldn't be trying to cause her pain like that. Especially if you want her to like you back. As somebody who knew a lot about stuff once said 'violence isn't the answer.' Use that method, it's a lot more efficient._

_After all, you did scare the shit out of her dragging her like that. Tell me is that how a Prince treats his Princess? I should hope not, if so this world sure has gone downhill. Now go and apologize to her, if you don't I swear I'm gonna –,"_

"Alright all damn ready!" the tengu shout at himself through his pillow, "Just shut the hell up!" He rose rubbing sleep from his eyes, it was 3:41 in the morning and he going to apologize to someone, he must've been crazy; the fact that he was apologizing was proof enough. (_a/n: it really was 3:41 a.m. when I wrote that.)_

Silently, he crept past the rooms of the vampire and the werewolf to his desired destination of Mahiru's bedroom. Inside he saw that she was fast asleep tossing and turning every once and awhile; standing over the bed, he watched her for a bit when he remembered why he came. Not to watch her sleep, but to friggin say sorry then run like hell from that room; how did he ever talk himself into this?

"Hey…hey get up, I've gotta tell you something." He gently prodded her shoulder and she turned with her back facing him, mumbling something inaudible. He bent down close to her to hear what she was saying when her hand reflexed from the dream she was having, and the long nails collided with part of his nose. They scratched it to the point of bleeding and Mitsuru being knocked backwards onto his rear end with a loud 'thud'.

"Oww…damn she's got a set of nails. I think she drew blood." He pulled his hand away to see the red liquid cover his fingertips. "Shit that hurt…"

Mahiru groaned and woke up, her hand had hit something then that something went crashing to the floor. She gasped, "OhMiGosh, Mitsuru! I'm so so sooooooo sorry, and you're bleeding too."

He just sat there, staring idiot in shock; not only was he in her room at an ungodly hour, but he was also just in boxers, how stupid could he get? "I- uhh…I- umm" He tried so hard and failed miserably on his apology at that so moment. "It's fine…I'm pretty sure the bleeding's stopped by now."

Mahiru got up and rushed over to her desk, pulling out a box of band aides from one of the desk drawers. With the way she always got cuts and stuff, it was good to have some near at hand. "You're not taking chances with it," the girl commanded, "you're going to put a Band-Aid on it. Plus this kind, they help heal the cuts fastest." Another good thing to know, which band aides did what and which ones were the better ones to use.

"No." He pouted like a three year old, crossing his arms across his bare chest. "Besides, I didn't come here for you to play doctor on. I came…I came," the tengu turned a light shade of pink; it wasn't in his usual nature to say 'sorry'. "Sorry……For earlier, didn't mean to scare you." He muttered.

"It's alright, really. And if you be good Doctor Mahiru will give the patient a treat, plus this." Gently she placed the tape player in Mitsuru's hand and while he was distracted with that she quickly put the bandage on his nose. Looking at him with it on, she laughed in her head, '_He looks like such a dork.'_

He glared when he saw her smirking, "What's so damn funny?"

"You should see yourself; you look like such a dork…but a cute dork."

Mitsuru looked down and became extremely interested in the little tape player, fiddling around with the different little switches and what not. Popping it open was what shocked him the most…it was _empty._ '_How the hell, where did it go? Damn she's sneaky.' _

"Give me the tape that was in there too."

"Hmm…If I remember correctly, the date was only for the recorder, not the actual tape."

"Why you little…Damn you're annoying!" He seethed, if he had known this was going to happen Mitsuru would've…well he didn't know exactly what he would do; most likely have ripped her to shreds. "So…" the tengu glared at the human girl, "what do you want _this _time?"

"Wha-what do you mean by that?"

"Don't play dumbshit with me, last time you wanted a date. Fine I went on that, now what do you want for the tape, another frickin date?"

"Actually… yeah I do, but I don't know where we should go."

Mitsuru stood up and brushed himself off, at this point he thought he was on drugs when he said, "Next week, there's a festival type thing down by the river. We could go to that…if you want to that is, I mean, we don't have to if you don't…want…to."

Mahiru smiled warmly at him and nodded her head. "I'd love to Mitsuru."

"I'm-I'm leaving now…" He turned to leave when Mahiru stopped him.

"Wait a sec."

"Now what?"

"This," Mahiru gave Mitsuru a quick little peck on the check, "I said that if the patient was good, Doctor Mahiru would give him a treat ad I did. Good night now Mitsuru."

He was lit up like a bright red Christmas tree when he bolted out of the room, Mahiru giggling at his reaction. Maybe what she had done was a little cruel to him seeing his reaction though, made it all worth while.

_THE NEXT MORNING_

One week, that was the length of time she had been given till the next date, making her wonder, just exactly what was on that tape? Mahiru took out her tape player and headphones, snapping the tape into the machine she waited for what was; more than likely, about to tell her what exactly Mitsuru did feel about her.

_TBC_

**A/N:** Now that chapter nine is done I must say that…the moment(s) you all have probably been wait for has finally come…THE TAPE SHALL BE PLAYED! (_Duntduntduuuun!)_ This means that if you used the word key during this whole thing, it's going to be changed for a few chapters. Also if any of this seems weird, it's probably because some of this was written at 3 a.m. on Friday night, ooh speaking of Friday, at about 10:45 I went to the movies yesterday night and saw STAR WARS. Tell you one thing I was staring at that screen with out blinking. Last thing, I learned birds chirp at 4 a.m. ok, see ya later, May the force be with you guys!

**Thanks to you guys:**

_**SliverShadowKitsune –**You'll now be able to find out what's on the tape, warn you though it will probably really corny.  
__**scathac's warrior **–Mitsuru does have a lot of mood swings doesn't he?  
__**Jesusgirl883 **–Nozomu probably is and NO NOT YOUR FLYING LIMA BEANS OF FIJI! ANYTHING BUT THOSE!  
__**Writergirl118 **–It was short, probably because I'm not sure if I really like that chapter anyway.  
__**Korii Shoujo **–The whole Mitsuru falling on a floor is based on true events of my life, I swear that they use Pledge on the floor at my house…especially since I wear socks around my house and slip on the floor if I'm not careful.  
__**Motokonobaka** –People at my house are out to get me with Pledge I know it…  
__**it burns **–Hmm…possibly, not very sure depends on…well I'm not sure what it depends on, but it is very possible.  
__**Senko Ryu **–Well I'm mean to Akira because, truthfully, my friend tells me not to be mean to Akira because she doesn't like it and I'm a meanie. Plus every time we play Crescent Moon, we can always torture everyone but Akira to the point of death and I've always wanted to do a story where one of the characters hits the other with a frying pan._

_**And to everyone who reviews after I post this and those who've reviewed my one-shots, THANKS!** _


	10. Finally Listening pt1

**A/N:** I'm back and in black! Ok I'm lying; I'm in a tie-dyed shirt blue shorts and fuzzy pink slippers. Enough about my attire now, I'm gonna just shut up now so that I'm not killed for delaying the playing of the tape.

**Forewarning:** This chapter contains Mitsuru acting very weird, and a lot of random things. You've been warned now it's your own fault if you lose your sanity from my randomness. PUDDING ON SPAGHETTI WITH CHEESE!

This chapter is dedicated to JesusGirl883, One of my new best buds and One of my Favorite writers, check out her stuff it's great.

**Disclaimer:** See ch.9

**Word Key:**

"All Tape Recorded Stuff"

_All None Tape Recorded Stuff_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Ten: Finally Listening part 1**

_Mahiru pressed the 'play' button, almost afraid to hear what really did go on in Mitsuru's mind when his voice flooded into the headphones._

"I feel like such a damn idiot doing this…" _There was a pause where he sighed,_ "But if I don't it'll haunt me for nights on end. Last night I had the most _fucked_ up dream. Heh…thing is that I remember down to the very last detail, and she was there, that damned woman.

"Now let's see where to start…duh ya damn moron, the beginning. Anyways, we were walking in a park, by a lake. There were dumbass birds in the water, some sort of flowers and in bloom, all that kinda girly shit.

"That's about all there is of the first one, the one after that though was the same thing but we were talking then. She…she asked about my childhood, question number one, 'Do I remember my parents?' I shake my head no and tell her, 'They died when I was young. I've been a ward of the state since I was 5.' For some fucked up reason, I end up telling the damn girl all about my childhood. Every last detail I can think of. Sign one that I'm going crazy, even in my fucking dreams.

"Sign two of my going crazy in that dream; I'm touching her…_of my own free **will. **_Not the dirty perverted way, at least not at yet and hopefully never, but like the girly holdin' hands shit. It's _just_ not _right; _I _like_ to hold her hand. Hell, I like when she's just in the same room…WHY THE HELL AM I TALKING ABOUT THAT!" _Mahiru couldn't help but smile at Mitsuru's distressed conversation with himself; so this is what she had heard him talking about all those different times._

_Mitsuru's deep breathing was heard before he continued on with his confessions, _"Now let me see…Oh yeah, there's one, we're in a cabin in the mountains. What the fuck we're doing there, I have no clue. I think I may have been watching a movie with a cabin and all that different shit.

"We were sitting, yeah, just sitting on a couch by a fire. Nothing to special, unless you count the cuddling thing. Eehheeewww. Finally after like ten minutes I finally push her away when it should've been ten seconds and she goes, 'Aww, you're such a grump.' Then she flings her arms around me and says the most vile, evil, dark thing ever, 'But you're my grump and…' geeze I'm surprised I'm even fucking repeating this, 'I LOVE YOU RU-CHAN!' that's so wrong."

_Mahiru about choked on her own spit from laughing so hard when she heard that nickname. Ru-chan…she'd have to remember to call him that when they went on their date next week. Also remember to take a camera so that she could get a picture of his face, oh the torture of poor Mitsuru._

"HEH…the funniest damn thing is that- geeze I'm a fucking moron- I don't push her away like I should, I pull her closer and whisper, 'I- I…I love you too…Mahiru.' Soon after I start to move her head towards mine and before they reach each other I thankfully wake up; geez talk about crazy weird messed up shit. Why…Why do I feel this way about a damn fucking human? Maybe, I dunno, maybe it's something I ate."

_Mahiru couldn't help but bust out laughing at how he blamed it on something he ate. But at the same time she couldn't help but be a little creeped out; this was the guy that basically said in everyway, everyday that he hated he with the passion of a million suns. She had noticed that lately though, he'd been a bit less angry seeming, the only way to find out, listen to more tape. _

"Okay, time for more of 'Mitsuru's Fucked Mind'. This edition just might be more twisted than my other 'dreams'. Now which one shall we start with this time…Well, last night in my 'dream' we were walking through a steamy tropical jungle type place and all of a sudden that damned Pizza the Hut from Space Balls is there. What the hell is that all about? I'm never watching that movie before I go to sleep again…Anyways, his fricking annoying minions are trying to attack me, key word being 'try'.

Of course being the fucking low-life bastards that they are, they go and take Mah-I mean the damn girl hostage, then blow off that planet faster than you can say 'Shit no!' I have no way to go get her so the only thing to do is get some help from the natives of the planet. Turns out, the planet is inhabited by Akira and his clan of Jawas and those fuzzy teddy bear people.

"He tells me that he knows a guy that can help, and I'm stuck with him _all_ the way _there_…talk about annoying, he talks both your arms and legs off and ya can't under stand one damn word he says the whole time. We get there, _finally,_ and the guy he takes me to see is some short guy name Obi-Wan Misoka Kenobi, mostly know as Misoka. (a/n: please forgive the very bad…whatever it is.) 'Hey Misoka,' he says, 'this guy needs help getting his woman back from Pizza Vader.'

"Misoka just looks at him and says, 'One, it's Pizza-the-Hut, and Second why the hell does this dream consist of both Space Balls and Stars Wars?' We both shrug our shoulders, it's my dream and _I _don't even know what the hell is going on. 'HEY!' I shout, 'SHE'S NOT MY WOMAN!' Misoka just says that he knows somebody with a ship that can take me to the place where Pizza-the-Hut lives. After all is said and done both of them decide to tag along, our pilot was some guy named Oboro and his co-pilot named Katsura who was a hermaphrodite."

_Mahiru had tears_ _running down her cheeks from laughing so hard. She could just see the terrified look on his face as the tengu realized that all of this had come from his mind; later on he would deny everything blaming it on something else. Out of all of them, this tape proved that, her 'Ru-chan' had the most active imagination._

"Well we got there and it turns out that Pizza-the-Hut had been locked in his limousine and he ate himself so the girl was safe…Then that damned Darth Nozomu showed up, 'Hello Little Mitty, how's it going? Oh pretty girl, Hi pretty girl!' He waved to Mahiru. Then we got into a big fight; he died, or as close as you could get him to dying anyways, and the damn girl comes up and starts bringing her head close to mine and I wake up again thankfully.

"Then I have more of those hero things where orcs are attacking her school and I have to save her; whole bunch of dead zombies attack us at a mall; some giant ape takes her and climbs up onto a giant building; oh and my personal least hated one, a giant shark is trying to eat her…I was rooting for the shark the whole time, but I had to go save her or else Akira and them wouldn't shut their traps for weeks on end.

"Another one I had was that…well, that me and her were little kids. I was sitting by myself, heh, what else is new or different? She was over in the sandbox with a bunch of other snot nosed brats, when one of the kids at the slides asked her to go over and play with them. Heh, guess you could say I was jealous of her, and gave her the 'glare of death' as the others call it. Fucking bastards think that I don't hear them but I do…But she had found out that I had been looking at her and came over.

"'I saw you over here and thought you needed somebody to play with; it's not fun being by yourself when there are tons of other kids to play with.' She rambles on telling me her name and I have to tell her mine since it's like an unwritten law in the kiddy community. Of course the friggin' girl can't pronounce my name right and calls me Mitty. I of course was able to see the whole thing, and then the grown up version of her tries to kiss me. Our lips were on one another's but it- it wasn't for very long before I wake up."

'_Okay Mitsuru is needing some mental help or me to kiss him in real life right about now, he dreams about it enough.' Thought the blonde as she moved from the desk to her bed to more comfortable; it was a good thing she wasn't eating any thing like fruit snacks, she might have accidentally choked on one laughing so hard._

"Hmm… this next one happen about five months ago around Valentine's Day, or as I call it, Hell-on-Earth Day. (a/n: for those of you like myself who suck at keeping months straight, it means that the current month in here is July.) Me and Mahiru were sitting at the kitchen table eating chocolate and saying a bunch of different foods like, this was hers, 'Pudding on spaghetti with cheese!' then I said 'on toast' she says 'with gravy and eggs.'

"After that string of weird shit I say, 'Marshmallows' she says, 'chocolate' which her face is covered in by now. 'Hershey chocolate,' I say thinking that I got her beat on this one when she yells at the top of her lungs, 'HERSHEY KISSES!' and before I know it she has her arms me and…and…and…and…and…and…"

'_AWW HURRY THE HELL UP MITTY!' Mahiru's mind shouted at the taped voice of Mitsuru, 'WHAT THE HELL DO I DO ALREADY!'_

"And…WE KISSED! Not, she kissed me; yeah she did kiss me but ARGHHH I KISSED HER BACK DAMMIT! DAMMIT, DAMMIT DAMMIT!"

_Then there was a loud crash heard on the tape, Mahiru guessed that in all his furry Mitsuru threw the thing across the room where it hit the wall. It surprisingly survived the teenaged hormonal wrath of the tengu, who at that moment was acting like a five year old._

"No I didn't wanna kiss her, I didn't wanna!" _he kept yelling. A few minutes later he started choking out more words, _"If…if I didn't want to then why…why the hell do I keep thinking about her? Fuck it all dammit! She's just a lousy friggin human, who's stupid enough to try to 'befriend me'; well I don't want it dammit!"

_From the way his voice was cracking, Mahiru suspected that he had been choking back tears, that 'weren't his style' since he was all big and bad. For the billion time it seemed on that tape he was silent and whispered something just barely audible on the tape._

"But the dream that scared me the most…and it sure as hell ain't easy to scare me. It-it's the one…the one where she's…se's in that white dress…"

_TBC_

**A/N:** (Doges objects thrown) Ha cliffy, and I'm gonna leave this one hanging for a few days before you get the next chapter. Mwhahahaha (Lightning in the background and creepy music) Hey soundboard guy you're playing the wrong music! Phantom is supposed to be playing! (Soundboard guy switches to the opening chandelier scene music from the 2004 version of Phantom of the Opera and Katie continues her whole little evil laughter thing until music cuts off) OK I had to do that. And I have to say…that this was the hardest chapter to write cause I kept getting damn writer's block. I'd like to give a big thanks to JesusGirl883 because she helped me over the hurdles. Hurdles…hurdles remind me of track…Grrrrrrr. I'm officially re-pissed off from today, my track coach at the track awards just _had_ to mention about how I didn't have as much as my sister…I'm gonna stop right there before I start cursing everything that pisses me off, like long lines in the express lanes.

**And a big thanks to you guys since I probably wouldn't even be here without my reviewers:**

_**scathac's warrior **–umm…what exactly is the penny dance?  
__**Rin** –I hope you'll read more and like it!  
__**SilverShadowKitsune** –I'm playing it, I'm playing it…please don't hurt me.  
__**DeepRedSky** –yep sneaky little bugger she is…now that I've finished this chapter I'm going to read the rest of your fic, it's great so far!  
__**Motokonobaka** –CHEESE! I prefer breathing like Darth Vader…which I can do; it's fun to creep your friends out with. Mwhaha  
__**Black Dog Goddess Suiyou** –I updated as soon as my brain would allow me.  
__**Jesusgirl883** –perverted fishies huh? Good thing I don't like to eat fish.  
__**Chrysanthemum3** –Yeah Mitty is acting weird cause he's finally cracking due to me.  
__**kalidra** –I'm glad that you like it.  
__**Elen** –it's ok you didn't review for the last chapter, I'm just glad you review!_

_**To All Who Review after I post this Thank You!**_

Catch ya'll later I've gotta run from assassination from people who don't like cliffies.


	11. Finally Listening pt2

**A/N:** OK I'm here and I'm in something way more comfy than black, or a tie-dyed shirt and blue shorts. I'm in scrubs! What are those you ask; they are what doctors and nurses wear at the hospital and I have a pair. These are what I wear when I'm doing most of my typing. Anyways, this chapter of this story might have to sustain you guys for a while because on the weekend I'm going out of town away from my computer. With that out of the way, let's this chapter read!

**Forewarning:** This chapter contains Mitsuru acting very weird, and a lot of random things. You've been warned now it's your own fault if you lose your sanity from my randomness. PUDDING ON SPAGHETTI WITH CHEESE! Or this one might be a bit serious, not sure, but there is stuff that is referring to the fruit of citrus.

**Disclaimer:** See ch. 9

**Word Key:**

"All Tape Recorded Stuff"

_All None Tape Recorded Stuff_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Eleven: Finally Listening part 2**

_Did Mahiru's ears hear correctly, did he just say white dress? It couldn't have been, she could've sworn that the only people who dreamt about their weddings were girls. Apparently she was wrong._

"She's standing there, the thing was all big and-and puffy and pretty damn white. It had some sort of stupid ass bead design on it…"_What she then heard, was something she never thought would come out of the tengu's mouth, well part of it anyways, _"Of course, it hugged her body in all the right places especially in her- WHAT THE FUCK AM I SAYING? I'M TURNIN' INTO THE DAMN VAMPIRE!

"Clam yourself down Mitsuru, no one else is ever going to hear this, _hopefully_. Now as I was saying, she was in a white dress and if fit perfectly okay. She had as a bouquet, some sort of pink flowers and was walking towards the alter. That's not the scary thing; the scary thing is that…_I'm **right** there._ I'm the one on that bloody flippin alter waiting for her and I'm- I'm happy.

"Feh, this is ridiculous, I'm acting like a damn chick dreaming about a stupid wedding that'll never happen…but I was still so damn happy. Maybe I have been hanging around that stupid vampire way too much; he's rubbing off on me. That dream also ended in a kiss, except that in that one there was…Well there was, hmmm, how to put this, how to put this. Just know that there was a major game of tonsil hockey going on. Sign three I've gone crazy in my fucking dreams."

'_Wait a sec,' thought Mahiru, 'isn't tonsil hockey…French kissing? Who've thought that- Yeah he has been hanging around Nozomu way too much for way too long.'_

"Okay, enough of that dream; scary shit, that's what it is, scary shit. There's another one that kinda weird, and I don't know how I could've had this dream when I've never even seen this damn movie. I dreamt that I was the Phantom of the Opera, and she was that Christine chick. Why the hell am I dreaming about a musical when I loathe the things, they just randomly burst out into song during those things. Blah, gag, choke, choke.

"Geez this stuff is weird and Nozomu was that Raoul guy. Seriously, why am I the Phantom though, the guy writes an opera and can sing and he's an insane genius; I'm not even close to that, except for maybe the insane part. As for the dream, it was so long ago that I forget the exact details, I just remember making a chandelier crash and kissing Mahiru."

_The blonde girl did a double take. Did she just hear correctly? She rewound the tape back a few seconds to confirm or deny any of her suspicions. '…remember making a chandelier crash and kissing Mahiru.' Once more '…andelier crash and kissing Mahiru.' Okay one more time last time '…ash and kissing Mahiru.' _

_She did hear correctly, that was the first he had ever used her actual name it was always either, 'damn girl', 'woman', or something along the lines. Mahiru was still stunned, stunned enough that she didn't hear Akira enter her room._

"_Hey, hey Mahiru!" he yell waving his arms in front of her face. In a flash she pressed 'stop' and whipped off the headphones. "Yeah Akira?"_

"_Are you okay, you've been up here all day and it's dinner time. So c'mon lets go down stairs and get something to eat." She shook her head no, "Nah, I don't feel like very hungry right now Akira." That was a complete and utter lie but she couldn't wait a moment longer to finish up the tape, the suspense was killing her. "Oh," his ears that were out fell down, "Well, if ya get hungry later, just say the word and I'll fix ya up something, even waffles."_

"_I'll remember that." She told him as he exited her room shutting the door behind him. In the free space of her mind she sighed, if that had been Mitsuru, could you say dead, buried six feet pushing up daisies? _

_Once again, the teenage girl pressed play on the tape player to hear Mitsuru's voice continue the pouring out of his internal conflicts. "_Sign four of going crazy in my dreams, celebrities find their way in there. The other night I had a dream that me and her were sitting on the couch on doing anything, thankfully. The silence though was killing when that guy George Clooney shows up right next to me.

"'Now,' he says, 'you have to go about this situation with extreme caution.' Of course I have to open my mouth and ask, 'Why's that…and why the hell are you in my dream?'

'I'm here because…well I don't know but you obviously need help. Now what you want to do is compliment her on things like her hair and her clothes. Most important thing is to be nice to her.'

"This is just wrong I tell you, _wrong_. If either Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt shows up in my dreams I swear I'll personally of my own free will check myself into a mental hospital. In fact I'm not sure why I haven't done it yet, just know that I've got to.

"Plus there's this other dream- more like a nightmare- that I had one night. Now I _know _for a _fact_ that this one came from my experiences at one of the homes I was in when I was like seven where I had an 'older sister' that _forced_ my to watch The Little Mermaid. No one should be put through that torture, not even the fox or the damned woman.

"Even thinking about that dream creeps me out; the only thing that is needed to be known is that she was the mermaid chick and I was that one dude who she falls in love with. Eehheeeeeeewwwwww gag majorly, barf most definitely, choke you got it, torture hell yes. And thankfully that's the only dream I have based on an animated movie, I don't think I'd be able to take more than that.

"One time…I was James Bond. Only cool thing about it though was that I got to drive a cool car and blow shit up. Boring snoozeville part was when I had to save the world from possibly being taken over or blown up. The gadgets were neat, especially the one where I got to control the car from a cell phone…"

_He kept rambling on and on about the different gadgets and cars and stuff that he got to blow up; typical boy._ _'Well at least I know he didn't have a Bond Girl in there with the way he keeps on talking about the other stuff.' Mahiru thought as she felt her eyelids getting heavy, how much longer would this thing go on?_

"Oh and uhh…the umm… the girl the he always has in every movie was uhh…yeah it was Mahiru. Nothing happened though, that should be pointed out, cause you know how usually Bond winds up with the girl in bed. _None _of that.

"Sign five I'm going crazy is umm well it's – holy shit this is just plain wrong – it's my dream last night. See, it's kinda like a continuation of my dream where we got married. And I'm _not_ talking about the reception after the ceremony I'm talking about the thing after that."

_Now he was trying to keep himself from going crazy, his voice hinting at that b cracking every once and a while. _"We were – I'm fucking twisted for even ever mentioning dreaming this – we were umm…well it was dark and in a hotel room. Grr…dammit I don't know how to say it other that it was that we were fu-"

_Not wanting to hear the last of that sentence she pressed stop. No wonder he didn't want her having that tape, if she were in his position she would've been. This last dream must've been what caused him to flip out easily around her a few months ago. _

_She took the tape out of the device and stuck it back under her mattress then placed the device, along with the head phones, onto the nightstand next to her bed. Crawling under the covers Mahiru tried to sleep, but the image of herself and the tengu together kept popping into her head slamming her back into an awake mode._

_Finally after what seemed like forever, but was only two hours, the blonde fell into a fitful sleep. Thankfully she only dreamed of happy things, like butterflies and ice cream sundaes. The voice inside her head told her 'Only six more days till your next date, so stay happy.'_

_  
TBC_

**  
A/N: **Well, that concludes the tape…I think the first half was funnier, this part was done by the more demented part of my brain that was screaming to get out and now that I let it have it's little bit in here it is now resting quietly. So I've got a while before it re-emerges. My next update for this fic may not be for a few days, because I'm going out of town for a few days.

**Thanks to ya guys**

_**Black Dog Goddess Suiyou –**I'm glad that you're alright after your ordeal with the gold fish snackies; I'm gonna go feed my plot bunnies now.  
__**jesusgirl883 –**I know which song you're talkin' about, the evil over-ripe lemon things do to (Inside joke peeps)  
__**scathac's warrior –**I hope you didn't get caught, that'd be bad  
__**Korii Shoujo –**I'm a little movie freak and I just remembered that the teddy bear people are the Ewoks  
__**Writergirl118 –**Insane is what I would classify the something as  
__**SilverShadowKitsune –**does this chapter answer the wedding gown question; the date will be soon, very soon  
__**ne-ma-pa-sa-ra –**Mitty stop denying things, what would the world be like? (Tries imagining) Aww it would be so sweet! And yes I'm cruel.  
__**Chrysanthemum3 –**I always figured he would be so then I figured he'd dream it  
__**DeepRedSky –**Gah! No don't implode! You have to finish your own story!  
__**ilovekaihiwatari –**Eep writing more…just don't hurt, me no like pain  
__**Motokonobaka -**I love Space Balls, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Comedy Rules!  
__**BlackLadyCharon –**take a deep breath, and be careful that you don't choke on spit cause I hate when reviewers just die like that on me._

_**And Thanks to those who review after I post this! Later!**_


	12. Little Voice

**A/N:** Well, I'm down in Lexington, KY. I'm at the hotel and my parents and sister are at a track meet as I write this note. Anyways, I'm bored out of my frapin misery here so I'm bringing you more chapters of the fic, so without further blah blah-ness, Ch. 12

**Disclaimer:** see Ch. 9

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

"_Thoughts also when two sides of the brain are arguing"_

_Dream_

**  
Tape Recorder**

**  
Chapter Twelve: Little Voice**

Mahiru woke up; if she ever saw a banana-strawberry loaded ice cream sundae again she would literally throw up. For once in her life she was glad to be in the waking world, for the dream-land butterflies were driving her insane. The girl rolled out of bed and started walking down towards the kitchen at a slow crawl.

'_I should've never listened to the tape, it's the whole reason I kept thinking of butterflies and sundaes. Cursed them all._' When she thought that last sentence she smacked herself on the forehead. "I'm turning into him."

"Into who?" came a voice from behind scaring the living daylights out of her, causing her to lose her balance and almost fall when the person from behind caught her. "Damn woman, get some balance geez, this is like the second time in two days that I've had to keep you from falling flat on your face."

"M-M-Mitsuru? Heh, you scared me, I didn't know that you were behind me." She blushed a shade of crimson, the last dream on the tape rearing its ugly head back into Mahiru's thoughts. "Erm...As for your question before, it was no-nothing."

"Whatever...Are you done being a klutz on these stairs at the moment...my arm can't hold you much longer."

Glancing down she saw that Mitsuru's arm was around her waist, supporting her up. "Oh, oh I'm sorry." She carefully maneuvered down the last few steps to the ground floor, Mitsuru not far behind; his arm still around her waist. "Umm…Mitsuru, your arm."

"Huh? Oh shit." Immediately his arm snapped back to his side, his face had flushed a bit and inside his mind he was cursing the arm to oblivion and back. The other side of his mind, the one he'd rather not hear, said differently. '_You liked it and you know it, don't lie to yourself.'_

"_That is so not true dammit! I don't –I don't like her, where the hell did you get an idea like that?" _Right then Mitsuru could tell, today was not going to be a good day. As he walked behind the girl to the kitchen he remembered the night before last when he had gone into her room. The next day he didn't go out of his room, apparently neither had she.

'_Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that what you're thinking about dealt with you in there with out a shirt.'_

"_WELL IT WAS YOUR DAMN FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE!" _He snarled. '_No the fault was yours, you handled her roughly and I was making you do what a gentleman would do. You just so happened to forget that you needed to look decent.'_

"Shut the fuck up already up stupid moronic idiot." He mumbled, and then mentally slapped himself for a few reasons. One, cause he knew the voice was right; two, the voce _was_ part of his own brain; three, because that voice was part of his brain he was arguing with himself; fourth and finally, what he said before was directed at the voice therefore himself ending in he just insulted himself.

A voice that he would've rather not heard penetrated into his thought process which was about to go haywire after fighting with itself. "Good morning Mitsuru, what's the occasion that we get to see you so bright and early in the morning?"

"I felt it my duty to disrupt your pattern of peace and morning solitude."

"Well you're a bit late for that Mitsuru, Akira and Nozomu beat you to it." Replied the fox demon coolly. Damn how Mitsuru hated that guy's comebacks. "And also, may I ask what happened to your nose that it needed a band-aid?" And damn how he noticed every little flipping detail.

"It was uhh…it was nothing, I hit it on the corner of the desk by my bed." A snowball stood a better chance in hell than him saying that it was because he was in the girl's room at an ungodly hour, in boxer shorts and going to actually _apologize_ for something.

"If you say so." He took a sip of his coffee, "Corners of desks often look like girl's nail scratches." That got Mitsuru on edge, how much did that fox really know about all of…whatever it was that was going on between him and Mahiru? The best name that he could come up with was Tengu Torture against one's will.

'_Oh more like MITSURU'S BEING A FRAPPIN' IDIOT AND WON'T EXCEPT THAT HE LO –'_

"_SHUT UP DO NOT!" _He screamed in his mind. The tengu felt like he was going insane, or possibly already was. Letting his drop down onto the table he muttered, "When will this day be over?"

"7:17 a.m. now so in another…sixteen hours and fourteen minutes it will be 12:01 a.m. tomorrow."

Mahiru stared at Misoka, "Whoa, did you do all that in your head?"

"Yes."

The girl shook her head and stared in a different direction out the window, " 'Nother question for ya, what's that?" she pointed out side to two blurs, one blonde the other a shade of brunette.

"A pissed off vampire would be the blonde blur and the other would be a were-wolf running for his life from the pissed off vampire. Why, I have no clue; they were doing that when I got down here, only I told them to take it outside."

The girl went over to the window and looked out at the two, if Nozomu didn't look like he was ready to kill Akira it would have been funny watching them. The said were-wolf then came charging past, "Hihi Mahiru, sorry can't talk right now!" He was soon followed after by Nozomu, "Morning Mahiru!" yelled the vampire as he also ran past.

She waved to them both but by the way things were going she wasn't sure if they were evening paying attention to anything other than what they ran into. "Those two." She chuckled to herself.

The kitchen had then once again become quiet, the fox demon drinking his coffee watching the two outside with amusement. The other demon seemed to have fallen asleep; his shoulders hunched down, head still on the table, and deep even breathing. Mahiru was pretty sure that those signs constituted sleeping.

What she did next was cruel, but funny. She walked quietly around the table so that she did not disturb his slumber and crept behind him and shouted his name in his ear causing him to jolt up. He had an extremely large red spot on his forehead where it had rested in the table. "The were-wolf did it!" he half yelled. (get it, instead of dog it's were-wolf hahahaha…ha…)

"The were-wolf isn't here Mitsuru, he's outside." Replied Misoka

"Grr…Shut up!" The tengu stood up and whirled around, "And you…" he glared at Mahiru trying to find something to insult about her, but to his surprise he couldn't find one damn thing. "Just – just stop being so damn annoying." He stomped back up to his room.

'_Stop being annoying? You should've thanked her for waking you up; you're losing the battle here.' _Mitsuru swore under his breath, the voice in his head was worse than Misoka and ten times more annoying. '_If you think I'm going to leave then you are completely and utterly wrong. Well, I will leave but only on one condition.'_

"_What the hell would that be? If that has to deal with admitting that I love her then-," _Mitsuru buried his head in his pillow, "SHIT!" The voice in his head suddenly had a field day. '_HAH! I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT! You do love her you're just too scared to admit it. Of course you're also too stubborn, not to mention an idiot.'_

"_SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY! I DO NOT LOVE HER!" _

"At least, I think I don't…Dammit stupid voice, are you happy that you've now given me the world's largest headache. You're the most annoying thing on this whole damn planet, or the universe for that matter." If the voice had a face it would've smiled smugly but before he let it speak he growled at it to shut up and that he had to get ready to clean-up.

Later that night as they were working at the bar, Mitsuru tried not to make eye contact with the Princess. He wasn't so sure about himself now, after the fight with himself; but no matter how hard he tried not to his gaze wondered over to her and there he stood staring. Once or twice she had caught him but he quickly turned it into a glare of extreme hatred, making her look away even quicker than the stare turning into a glare.

The rest of the week had gone like that, Mitsuru gaping at her behind her back and glaring when she was looking and he had become moodier. Little did the rest of them know of his inner conflicts with himself and his dread of what was to happen that night as he awoke from the sun filtering through window on that seventh day since he visited Mahiru. Tonight would be the night of the date…

_TBC_

**A/N:** Ok those of you, who got out your torch and pitchfork, put them back NOW. It took longer than I wanted to update, it would have been earlier today but my mom made me turn off the computer since there was thunder and lightning outside and she didn't want the computer fried so I complied. I don't want my baby being hurt, I could very well cry. Also, some of you told me very interesting dreams so I'll tell my own interesting one. The orc dream where the school is being attacked is real, except for it was mine. They were attacking my old elementary school and there was fire everywhere and gasoline in pools. I was in there and had to rescue all the stuffed animals that were trapped in the building and load them on to black army helicopters and fight the orcs along the way. Whelp, that's it for this note, the next chapter is the date and possibly the start of the end? All of that is true except for the last part, I have no idea how far this baby'll go. Later, gotta work on chapter 4 of my other story since people are probably ready to bring out torture devices if I don't update that one. Also, summer reading program so updating may be a tad-bit slow.

**Thanks to you guys:**

_**SilverShadowKitsune –**Didn't update as fast as I wanted, but I hope this makes ya happy : )  
__**Korii Shoujo – **yes your dreams are very interesting, but have you ever dreamed that your English teacher and your classmates had you hooked up to a computer and sending electronic shock waves to legs where it hurt like hell and when you wake up you find that the pain in your legs is real? I have.  
__**Black Dog Goddess Suiyou – **nope I didn't have a whole lot of fun, it was boring as hell and I got my right ear sun burned, now it itches and if I pick it, it'll start to bleed and part of my neck got burned. I said I was bitten by the sun vampire, the food was good though. : )  
__**Writergirl118 –**I typed and thought as fast as my fingers and brain could, and here it is over a week later.  
__**Jesusgirl883 –**you're better than a plot or subplot bunny, you're one of my bestest friends, but I'll still give ya the pasta with chocolate pudding on it.  
__**Scathac's warrior –** one can only guess if he did or didn't my guess would be probably  
__**Ne-ma-pa-sa-ra –**I hope I didn't offended you by using the Little Mermaid, I needed an animated movie that boys seem to fear and that's the one that my brothers never wanted to watch, and watch it whenever ya want, more power to ya, cause in all honesty I kinda like it.  
__**Rauko-chan –** I have read your fic and I'm waiting patiently for the update, which I hope will come very soon. You're making me blush thought with all the compliments, I really like your writing style I can actually imagine the stuff that goes on.  
__**BlackLadyCharon – **that's good, and when did Misoka get here OO oh well none of my business  
__**Motokonobaka – **it is possible since he was a ward of the state so he probably went to different foster homes and probably had an older sister or two along the way. If they were blood related though, she probably would get with Ryu and pound some sense into Mitty's head. 'That rabbit's got a vicious streak a mild wide!  
__**ilovekaihiwatari –** oh ok, that's good (creeps slowly out from behind large boulder)  
__**kalidra – **I updated again, I'm not really all that thrilled by this chapter, I find it kind of crappy  
__**Elen – **no it's a funny joke, it took me a sec to get it though, but when I got it, it was funny. Hope your internet stops being so screwy and it's all right that you haven't been review that much, I just like that you review: )_

_**And Thanks to all those who review after I post this chapter.** _


	13. You Ticklish

**A/N: **You wanna know when somebody has too much free time? When they find out the little baseball weight thing used on a pull string of the fan can simulate the phases of the moon. Damn I have too much free time. OO Any who onward with the chapter known as chapter 13. Also, if you so desire you can pop the Lilo and Stitch soundtrack in and listen to it during the next few chapters since it's kinda what I listen to while I type up the chapter.

**Disclaimer:** see Ch. 9

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

_Dream_

**  
Tape Recorder**

**  
Chapter Thirteen: You Ticklish?**

Mitsuru felt the sun filtering through the window onto his face as if it were saying all happy and sunshiny like, 'Come on sleepy head wake up today is a day of happiness.' Followed by birds chirping, if he felt like it there would've been roasted birdies but was too tired to fry them to the crisp he threatened as he rolled over onto his side.

Mahiru had woken up at nine that morning, about the same time Mitsuru was threatening to fry birds to a crisp, and made a grand exit off her bed onto the floor. Her original intent was to climb off the bed but was caught in the covers and in the midst of trying to untangle herself, fell off with a loud 'oof'.

She rubbed her head, "Ow." Remembering what today was she hopped up and forgot the lump forming on her head. "Oh boy am I excited, I'm going to a festival tonight. Whoops hold on one second." She froze half way through a little happy dance, "Crap! I meant to ask him the other day what I should wear."

The pose Mahiru had switched to was one of thinking. She thought back on the past week, the tengu had been avoiding her more than usual. Then again, Mitsuru had his odd little habits and phases. One of those phases included Ms. Pac-Man where he had memorized the pattern of the ghosts on just about every level. (I've only gotten to level 4 so no idea how far the game goes.) This seemed more than a phase though, more like a paranoia of the girl. _'Oh Mahiru you're over analyzing this whole thing, you're half awake and haven't eaten yet.'_

For once in her life as she skipped down the stairs Mahiru didn't slip or fall flat on her rear. Upon entering the kitchen she that only Misoka was present. "Morin' Misoka. Where's Akira and -" Before she could finish the question he nodded outside. "They've been out there since I came down at seven."

They were outside running around and the vampire was once again trying to kill the were-wolf. Mahiru sighed, "This is getting ridiculous." She moved over to the back door, what she did next is what made her friends tell her that she should be a pre-school teacher. At almost the top of her lungs Mahiru yelled, "BOTH OF YOU STOP IT RIGHT NOW AND GET OVER HERE!"

The two boys stop and froze right where they were. Akira's ears had popped out and pressed firmly against his head the other had shrunk back behind the were-wolf; she reminded them of an angry kindergarten teacher. Nozomu would know, when he was younger he wasn't able to count how many times the teacher yelled at him for trying to peek up girls' skirts. (a/n: god I made him perverted)

"Both of you, here. NOW!"

They replied in unison, "Yes Ma'am." Then, still in unison, they a few steps forward so that they were just a few paces shy of the back steps and a certain angered blonde girl. "Now, you've been doing this for well over a week and I want to know the reason why."

The were-wolf and the vampire looked at each other then at Mahiru and finally back at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "We really don't know why." The younger stated followed by the older, "We just decided to do it."

"Oh, you had no intent to kill Akira."

"No, Mitsuru already called that job so I just chase him around the place."

"Uh-huh. Well how about I give you a reason."

The two once again looked at each other then slowly nodded their heads. "First off, Nozomu, take your palm and place it on Akira's shoulder." When he did as instructed she then continued. "Now say tag you're it."

"Tag, you're it."

"Now run away as fast as you can. Akira you then go and chase him and do the same thing he just did to you." Akira looked puzzled for a moment then shook his head vigorous up and down before chasing after Nozomu yelling, "I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you!"

Mahiru smiled at her handiwork of making some sort of peace between the two before heading back inside. "Princess," Misoka said, "have you ever considered being an elementary school teacher or having a day care."

"It is a possibility."

He nodded his head as she sat down, "Then I shall hope that the class you must teach is a good one. Of course you have other, more pressing matters at hand do you not?"

"Umm…wha-what are you talking about Misoka?" she shifted uneasily in her chair.

The kitsune took no notice as he pick up the newspaper and paged through it. "Well, I heard that there was supposed to be a festival of some sort down by river; you know the part closest to the beach. I figured that you might go there with some of your friends."

"Oh, umm, if you need me to Misoka I could stay here and help with the bar."

"It will not be necessary. I have a feeling that it won't be very crowded here, more people will go to the festival. Nozomu, Akira, and myself will be able to handle it here; it's not like we haven't done so before." He finished as a blonde headed vampire went sailing past the window flying through the air.

'_What the heck? Am I seeing things again?' _Mahiru thought. "Can I ask one more question?"

"Certainly, ask away."

"Can vampires fly?"

Misoka cracked an eye open and looked at the expression on the Princess's face; it was one of confusion and thoughts of mild hysteria. "Last time I checked, they couldn't when in human form."

"Well…They can now, or at least Nozomu just did."

"Don't worry yourself over it Princess, I'm sure it's just them playing tag."

The girl sighed as she stood up, "You're probably right, as usual." While she was saying this, the girl was getting out a bowl, spoon, the honey nut cheerios, and the milk, intending to have a peaceful breakfast that never really happened often around the Moonshine. Since Mitsuru wasn't up and damning everything it had become quite peaceful.

'_Now if only I can find a way to get him out of that shell of his. But he just so stubborn…What the heck is this metallic taste in my cereal?' _Mahiru had been concentrating so hard on how to get Mitsuru to open up that she had eating all her cheerios and was now gnawing on the spoon. Quickly she removed the said spoon from her mouth and thought the worst four letter word known to man. '_Oops.'_

After that incident Mahiru looked up at the clock and saw that it was already quarter after eleven (11:15) and Mitsuru had still not 'graced' them with his presence. Placing the dirty dishes into the dishwasher to be cleaned with the rest of the dishware, she hurried up the stairs saying about how she was going to wake the 'lazy bum' as she called him.

She knocked gently on the wood of the door before opening it. "Mitsuru?" she asked in a soft voice, "Mitsuru, are you awake yet?"

"Go away, I dun wan any cheese cupcakes ya crazy salesman." Was the mumbled reply from the Tengu as he flipped over onto his other side, "Why dun ya go bother the crazy little old lady down the street with a shot-gun."

"What the –oh he must be dreaming and talking in his sleep; poor guy has some issues." Treading quietly as to not wake him, the blonde girl walked up and shook his shoulder. "Rise and shine sleepy head."

He did some then that he would never do in the waking world and that was blow a raspberry at her before rolling over again so that his back was facing her and pulled the cover over his head; leaving Mahiru with a look of 'did he just do that' on her face. When the initial shock had passed she shook him again only rougher. "C'mon Mitsuru get up."

That, of course, was unsuccessful and after the umpteenth time the human finally gave up on that approach. She stood there for a moment or two before getting an idea; she wasn't sure if this one would work either but it was worth a shot. She moved over to the foot of the bed, found the tengu's ankles and wrapped a hand around each of them; bracing herself with the carpeting Mahiru took a deep breath, counted to three and then with all the strength she could muster pulled.

The plan of dragging him out of the bed would've been successful, if he hadn't grabbed onto the head board at the last second. She knew he was stubborn but, cheese and crackers, this was ridiculous. Releasing him she stood at the bottom of the bed steaming furiously, what had her aunt done to get her up and moving some mornings?

Mitsuru's body had gone limp again but his arms had stayed hanging loosely on the headboard over his head giving Mahiru an idea. '_Well, I could try…nah it won't work. Or would it? I mean, it'll work if he's ticklish, but if not he can except some cold water on his head.'_

"Oh Mitsuru, I have a question," she asked as she strolled once again back over to the side of the bed. Mahiru leaned her head down close to the sleeping tengu's ear and asked him in a loud whisper, "Are you ticklish?" Immediately after she began the tickle assault on him.

Mitsuru felt that someone was in his room but had no intention of waking up for he wanted to delay the coming of the day for as long as possible and didn't want that smug ass little voice in his head to have any satisfaction at the fact that he had a date tonight with that damn woman. They had kept shaking him and once even tried to yank him off the bed.

When had finally thought that they had considered defeat he heard the person that he really didn't want to be around ask him a question. Mahiru had asked if he was ticklish, but there was no way in hell he would ever tell anyone that he was.

Before understanding the reason of why Mahiru had asked such a stupid question he felt her start the evil tickle. He curled up into a ball as much as possible but she didn't stop; if any thing that just caused her to persist forward laughing and saying that she wouldn't stop until he sat up and was awake.

"Grr…fine damn woman." He growled sitting up and moving some stray bits of hair out of his face, "I'm up." He glared at her for a while before he started messaging his temple and sighed. "You wouldn't be this persistent unless you had something you wanted to ask me so what the hell do you want?"

"Well…I…" When she had paused Mitsuru had started do the 'Final Jeopardy' theme. "See the thing is," Mahiru started again annoying his attempt at rudeness; little did she know of the scolding a certain little voice was giving him, "this festival tonight, I was wondering what I should wear to it."

He stared at her, "That is your all important, wake up Mitsuru through torture, question?"

"You didn't let me finish, plus you've been avoiding me all week. What I mean by what to wear I was wonder like traditional, modern, what?"

"If you wanna be uncomfortable, look like an idiot, and raise the suspicions of those downstairs you wear the traditional stuff. Other than hat I don't give a shit." '_Or so you say.' "Shut up you're fucking annoying." _

She nodded her head, looking a bit hurt, and turned to leave when Mitsuru blurted out, for a reason that he still hasn't discovered, "Uhh, what I mean is that I want you to dress nice but surprised me." Mahiru faltered a bit at the sudden outburst, but all the same turned around at him and smiled.

"One more question, then I'll leave you alone I promise." Before she could ask he answered, "Be ready and around the corner by four." She nodded again and skipped down to her own room to get an outfit ready for that night.

When she had gone Mitsuru fell back on his pillow and lay there for a few moments before he realized that escape was hopeless and also that…he didn't have anything to wear that was appropriate for that night. "Wait a sec, maybe one of those other guys will know what to do. Time to pay them a visit, oh joy." Mitsuru stripped quickly from his night clothes into jeans and a tee-shirt to pay a visit to some mysterious people.

Mahiru, on the other hand, was searching through the vast sea of clothes that she had come to obtain over the past couple of months. After what had seemed two eternities she had finally picked out what she felt to be the perfect outfit. It was pink khaki shorts with a Hawaiian print skirt that tied up at the waist, and was basically like an ankle length cover up skirt. The shirt was a simple Hawaiian blue colored spaghetti tank top and she wore regular blue and gray gym shoes. (I told you all I'm listening to the Lilo and Stitch soundtrack therefore, lot of Hawaiian stuff.)

After putting on the pink lip gloss and eye shadow the girl looked over at the clock and saw that it was only two o'clock. Plopping down on her bed Mahiru picked up the book that was on her nightstand and cracked it open. The book was Star Wars Revenge of the Sith; it was due on Thursday and she still had a bit to go on it, like three hundred fifty-six pages, bit.

To say that time passed shortly was an understatement; in the course of the two hours, two minutes felt like it took three eternities to pass. In other words, it was very, very, **_very_** slow. Then four o'clock was finally coming close; Mahiru put her book down and walked down and out the door shouting a quick good bye to the others.

In a matter of moments the girl had gone down the street and turned the corner; if Mahiru hadn't know that Mitsuru would be there waiting she would've thought that he was just some random boy standing there.

She wasn't sure how, but his hair was styled and he would've dropped dead before he'd let something like that happen. He was wearing a bluish green Hawaiian print button down shirt, except for it was completely unbuttoned and revealed a white muscle tee undershirt. Topping it off was his regular slightly faded blue jeans and gym shoes.

He opened his mouth to say something but stopped and didn't open it again until a few minutes later when he asked, "You ready?" She gave him a nod of the head. "Umm…Alright then, let's get goin'." With that statement said, the two started towards the festival; anticipating all that was to come.

_  
TBC_

**  
A/N:** This chapter is just kind of, a bit on the random side, and written at like midnight. It might be a while before this baby gets updated again because my Star Wars book is due Thursday. I still have a renew for it but the darn thing won't let me so I have to read like the wind in 3 days, I think I can do it. I have both good news and bad news. Good news first: I had an electronic key chain pet and it was a bat and I named it Mr. Bat like Mahiru's. Bad News: It died, I had it for 2 days and I killed it, does that make me a horrible person? I don't know how it died either, I think I over fed it cause I cleaned up it's crap and gave it its shots, I don't know how else it could happen. And now I have a new music thing it is called Elvis Presley, his songs rock. Plus I think this is my longest chapter yet, I checked the word count of the actual story, not the an's and all that crap, and it came out to 2,553 words. Damn I'm a blabber mouth. Well that's it for this note, see ya'll again soon.

**Thanks Ya Guys: **

_**JesusGirl883- **yeah, dat's interesting, the other day I dreamt that I was pregnant and in the delivery room O.O and now all can stare. And don't ask me who the father was cause I have no idea but I'm hoping it was Viggo Mortensen and I hope I spelled his name right. (a.k.a. Aragorn from Lord of the Rings)  
__**SilverShadowKitsune- **glad you're happy. And don't worry about the date I have it all figured out…well most of it anyways.  
__**Scathc's warrior-** have fun, here's more and I still have no pudding at my house grr…  
__**Inu romance freak- **I am glad that you are having fun reading and enjoying this. : )  
__**Writergirl118- **He reminds me of Gollum in a way, like the fact that he's going insane-Wait, that's just me who's the insane one.  
__**BlackLadyCharon- **Yes poor Mitsuru, it's funny but wrong. I have a character that comes and goes in my head but he comes more than he goes, he's not from any place at all really, but I seriously wish he'd go back into the deeper confines of my mind where he came from. He's a big jerk.  
__**Elen- **I updated as fast as my lazy bum would, I love my reason for why they were fighting, that adds to it being funny.  
__**Rauko-chan- **my brother is the same way and he's 23. and as for the name, yeah he is a dumbass, no other way to describe it.  
__**Motokonbaka- **yes mentalness is cool and is what I thrive on. 'The book of armaments chapter two verses 9 to 21-And St. Attila riased the handgrenade up on high saying, O Lord bless this thy handgrenade that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits in thy mercy. And the Lord did grin and the people did feast on the lambs and sloths and carpe and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast crereals and fruit bats...(skip a bit brother)...and the Lord spake saying first thou shalt take out the holy pin, then thu shalt count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shall count and the number of the counting shall be three. four shall thou not count no either thou count two excepting that thou then procede to three. five is right out one the number three being the third number be reached, Then lobbest thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch toward thy foe, who being naughty in my sight shall snuff it. Amen'  
__**Ilovekaihiwatari- **actually I don't get younger kids into manga, I have no little kids that I can dement since most of them are already set in their ways. I had a four year old tell me my shows were stupid, but that was only because I won't let her watch t.v. at my house when I had a half hour left of the second Ghost in the Shell movie. And I'm not the only one who is late with an update; do you know how long I've been waiting on an update of your story my friend? (I'm not being hostile here I'm just asking that you update please!)  
__**Kelsey R Hill- **That is true that there aren't many CM fics, but the numbers are climbing slowly but surely and that brings me happiness  
__**Kyoko-chan- **Hell I'm just plain crazy! Lol, glad you like. I always knew cotton candy was evil, even in dreams  
__**It burns- **no idea about the peace and war thing between the two (I have something special planned out that comes after the date hehehe me evil) little voice probably will die because; yes it is annoying and designed to be annoying. Hmm…that sounds like a very good sequel idea; I'll ponder over this when my brain has a spare minute._

_Later Folks!_


	14. Festival Time pt1

**A/N:** I'm bored, I'm slap happy, I changed a light bulb and I can't concentrate on a book for very long. The solution I have come up with, time everything with cds it works. So onward with number 14, this is also how old I am for the next month. And remember this is going on to the Lilo and Stitch soundtrack, parts in this or a later chapter will be done to some music from the Foot Loose soundtrack.

**Disclaimer:** see Ch. 9

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

_Dream_

****

Tape Recorder

**Chapter Fourteen: Festival Time! Part 1: Flying Problems and Getting There**

Silence, followed by more silence, and after that…more silence. That was how it went on the start of the long walk. Finally Mitsuru got some sense in his head before that evil little voice could start nagging him.

"Umm…We could umm…fly there," seeing the look on the girl's face he quickly added, "If you want to…that is." Once again he saw a look of surprise on her face and stopped practically yelling, "Alright, what's the big friggin deal that you have to act like a space cadet?"

Silently Mahiru reached her arm up and patted the top of his aqua colored hair to feel the hair gel in it. "Wow you really did use styling gel…I'm impressed."

"…So? Big deal styling gel, Mitsuru has some in his hair oh no end of the universe." He replied flatly waving his hands a bit. What stopped him dead in his tracks was three words from her, "You're cute looking."

He didn't know what to say; he had never really received compliments, or given them out really, so he had no response. '_Tell her thank you and how she also looks good. You should use cute or sexy, but you're not to that level.' "Will you just fucking die?" 'Not likely now tell her.'_

After a few seconds he realized that her hand was still in his hair, carefully he removed it and stuttered out, "Th-thank ya-you." Turning away he asked again, "Do you want to fly?"

"On one condition."

"Geeze there always has to be some strings attached with you doesn't there?"

Ignoring that comment she stated, "Only on the condition that you won't drop me."

Mitsuru gave a slight nod that Mahiru didn't notice when he wrapped his arms around her waist, giving her a bit of a shock that made her body automatically start going backwards but he only held tighter so that she couldn't move. "I won't drop you." He told her in his low voice that he usually used for threatening. In this case, he used it to try to clam the princess down.

He threw in, "Well…at least not on purpose." as they lifted up off the ground. They flew up until all the cars and people looked like small black dots on a backdrop of concrete that looked white. Flying up that fast in such a short amount of time freaked Mahiru out and she had a basic grip death on the tengu that held her up there.

"I…said…I wouldn't drop you…so why are you…killing me…by cutting off my air supply?" He asked; the pauses so that he could get enough oxygen to breathe, she was really choking him. Her eyes were clamped shut. "You said would drop me, at least not on purpose so how do I know that if you drop me you won't say it was an accident huh?"

This woman, Mitsuru concluded, was out of her mind and in no condition to fly. In fact he wasn't sure if he was able to fly either, were things supposed to look kind of purplish like they did? "Fine!" He yelled over the roar of the wind as he lower them back down, several blocks away from where they had originally been when they started flying.

Only when her feet were firmly planted on the asphalt did Mahiru venture to open her eyes. "Will you…let go now…you're choking me…" he choked out, his face turning a nice shade of red from lack of oxygen.

She released him and gasped as he was coughing, "Ohmigosh Mitsuru, I'm so sorry!"

The tengu crouched down on the ground as he waited for the dizzy spell to pass over him. (You know the feeling you get when stand up real fast from sitting down.) He took a few more deep breaths then stood up. Mahiru still looked a bit concerned even though he had said that everything was fine. "Ya know you worry about me dropping you; I should be worried about you hitting or quite possibly killing me." He stated as they walked the last couple of blocks.

"Well I can't help it!" the girl defended, "You've caused me to have the greatest fear of flying! Not to mention the fact that when we first met you tried to kill me on more than one occasion. Hell, you even _have_ dropped me before so how do I know you wouldn't do it again!"

"_That_ was your own fault." Mitsuru snapped at her. "My fault; how was it my fault?"

"You said you wanted down, I complied so I wouldn't have to deal with your screeching your damn head off about and before I could land completely you, being the dense idiot you are, wriggled out and fell. You then fell three feet onto the black top and lightly sprained an ankle and since they all blamed _me_ for it I had to be like your friggin butler which I hated if you must know." He explained in the process of five minutes.

"Okay then two times. You're forgetting the time that you dropped me…_from five hundred feet above the tallest building!_"

"I have no clue- oh wait yeah, yeah I remember that. I caught you after you fell a couple hundred feet; you were as fine as could be. The look on your face though was priceless, that kept me laughing for a good while." As he thought back on the look of sheer terror on her face he started cracking up again.

"Humph. Yeah very funny Pinocchio Boy." Mahiru turned and continued walking leaving Mitsuru there with his fit of hysterics. Looking up he saw her leaving and thought, "_What the hell? Pinocchio Boy, that's weird even for her_."

"Uh…oh crap…Hey, wait up." His feet pounded on the concrete as he tried to catch up to her, he had just remembered; where they were you had to pass through a bad part of town to get to the festival. A girl like Mahiru walking through that place by herself just screamed easy target. '_Oh what's this? The great and grumpy Mitsuru actually caring, somebody check and see if he has a fever.' "One of these days you will shut up and you will fucking die." 'Until then I'll be napping.'_

She had ignored him and turned the corner out of his sight. "Damn idiot." The tengu muttered as he put on an extra burst of speed and rounded the corner. Too late, a gang of punks who thought they were 'all that' had surrounded her and trying to get her to come with them.

"A pretty girl like you shouldn't be wanderin' around here by herself. She could get hurt, so how about you come with me and my buddies and we'll escortcha around." One of them said. "Umm…no thanks," The girl told him, "I can manage just fine."

"Well that's what they all say babe either way they end up-" "HEY!" Mitsuru yelled to get their attention then walked forward sporting his pissed off, don't-mess-with-me-or-I'll-beat-the-shit-out-of-you, look. "She said she was alright so back off."

"What are you her boyfriend or something? Get lost kid." With that said, they though he would just leave and paid no more attention to him. Bad idea, _very_ bad idea.

The one who had dismissed him before went back to talking to one of his other buddies. That's when a very heavy object hit him full on like a freight train in the chest and down he went. The little brat from before (Mitsuru) had tackled him and the fires from the very depths of hell were burning in his eyes.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU CALL ME DIPSHIT!" The bad mistake the group had made was calling him her boyfriend. In his mind, hell would freeze over before that happened. "You all have officially pissed me off. Now, I must beat you all to possibly within three inches of your lives and if you think I won't just try me."

In a matter of a few minutes the gang boys were sprawled out on their backs unconscious. "I told them I'd beat them to with in three inches of their lives and did they listen noooo." Mitsuru brushed his hands off much like one would dirt. He turned around and faced Mahiru, "And you…" She winced and waited for the yell that never came as he sighed. "Try to pay attention to where you are other than 'I'm on a street in the city'. Cause what woulda happen if somebody wasn't around to help you next time? You'd be god only knows where got it?"

Mahiru shook her head yes. '_Is he…actually worried? He is.' _A look of what seemed to be a mixture of shock and happiness came across her face. The tengu saw the look on her face and did what we call 'flipped out'. "H-hey, what's that look for? Stop it, stop it right now…I'm serious, it's creepy and down right disturbing."

There was a small groan from one of the punks and Mitsuru added, "C'mon, I don't think we want to be here when these 'knocked out beauties' wake up."

"Oh…right." Gracefully she hopped over one then another and stood next Mitsuru who once she reached him turned and started walking. "Just hurry up." He mumbled. Mahiru was actually having a hard time keep up he usually walked like I'm-pissed-at-you-so-just-to-annoy-you-I'm-gonna-walk-really-slow.

"Uhh, hey Mitsuru is there a problem? It's better to talk things out then keep it bottled up inside because if you do then that can lead to unnecessary outburst and violence." Then she added very softly, "Oh, guess it's just a tad bit late for that…he does that naturally."

"Problem, there's no problem other than I have to friggin deal with you." '_Aww you were worried for her well being that is just too adorable. I'm going to have to write that down in my diary, who knew you where capable of such things.' "Are you even male? Honestly what guy in his right mind keeps a diary! And actually I have you as my problem die and go to hell stupid voice." _After that the voice stayed silent much to the young tengu's liking.

Some short time later they had reached a street with an alley off to the side. "There." He mumbled to himself and walked into it. "Uhh…Mitsuru are you sure that is the right way?"

"Yes, it's a short cut. I don't know if anybody is hiding around here or not so you'd better stay close." He warned and immediately felt a tightening on the upper part of his left arm as Mahiru clung to him. "Ok…Now time for the short cut."

Without warning the boy grabbed her around the waist and pushed off the ground hard and within mere moments they were again as high as some of the tallest buildings. "KYHAHHHH! MITSURU THIS ISN'T A SHORT CUT!" She screeched against the wind, eyes shut firmly and grasping to him for dear life.

"YES IT IS!" He yelled, "IT'LL GET US THERE A WHOLE LOT FASTER MINUS ANY AND ALL GANGS…WELL THAT IS UNLESS THEY HAVE AND KNOW HOW TO FLY AIRPLANES WHICH IS HIGHLY DOUBTFUL!"

If Mitsuru had said anything else Mahiru paid no attention what so ever to it and buried her head into his chest just incase she should open her eyes, that way the girl wouldn't be able to see how high they were. About ten minutes later her feet were once again against something solid presumably blacktop.

"OK, now it's time to let Mitsuru go." He said unclasping her hands that had become numb from clutching on to the material of the back of his shirt for so long. "We are here now and as you can see I _didn't_ drop you."

"Yeah, yeah you say it like you just did the world more harm then good when it didn't really make a difference." Grabbing his arm the girl led him to the entrance practically yanking his arm right out of the socket. Once inside seeing it all Mahiru knew, she was going to have one hell of a time. Yet one thing still bothered her…how was she going to tell Mitsuru that she had listened to that tape? Oh well she'd figure it out later, right now all she wanted to do was have some fun; maybe she'd tell him after dinner.

_  
TBC_

**A/N: **Mwuhahaha Finally, I have updated! And that whole thing with the punks, I will say it myself, GEEZE THAT WAS RANDOM! Yet interesting. Anywho, I've got nothing else to say except for: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! THEY'LL KISS SOON ENOUGH! JUST WAIT! Okay I'm done.

**NOTE TO READERS: This is a note that I was asked to tell all of you by JesusGirl883. To those who read Deathly Confessions and other fics by JesusGirl, her computer is sick and she won't be able to update. She is very sorry about this.**

**Thank you to my readers:**

_**Poisonmoon- **Glad you're pumped. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up.  
__**Itburns- **Yes they will. By heat do you mean Lemon? If so then no, that's gonna get its own story. Nope I didn't the festival is just there.  
__**JesusGirl883- **That's what I did most of the time when I was down in Lexington, and yeah I probably would've too…at least she did sit on him, think of what would've happened if she did and he rolled over and pinned her under him.  
__**Writergirl118- **I hope you find this chapter funny also.  
__**Ketosuri- **Mitsuru psychoticness is cute and also fun to write.  
__**Chrysanthemum3- **Quite possibly, one can never know  
__**Kyoko-chan- **Actually, my summer vacation has been going on for about I dunno how many weeks, since about May 27 maybe. There were 3 days of exams (Each day there's 2 exams except for the last day there's only 1) but I was exempt from all but one of them but that was my art and that was already done. And I finished my Star Wars book only to have it be late, oh well 2 day grace period.  
__**Shol Os Thaedys- **Lilo and Stitch so totally rock thank you Campbell County Public Libraries of Northern Kentucky for the CD. And now I don't have to listen to just the original soundtrack on repeat because I got another one called 'Lilo and Stitch's Island Favorites' It's so cool it has the song on it that they use for the coke with lime commercial.  
__**SilverMoons BlackWings- **(Watches you bounce up and down) I'm glad that you like it. I'm real sorry that I didn't update sooner. I like your pen name, it's pretty.  
__**Ilovekaihiwatari- **It's ok you're forgiven. Chapter 4 (or 5) soon yes? And I tried to get her to watch Fushigi Yugi the other day but she said no.  
__**Zoey- **I'm flattered, thank you very much, and where he finds out she listened to the tape will probably be coming up very soon  
__**Rin-wolf- **I'm sorry I drove you to insanity, I'll try to get the next chapter up quick I promise.  
__**Kelsey R Hill- **Why you ask? Because I'm evil, really I am in a way I sat on there phone and kept saying Keiko and Akira over and over to my friend who doesn't really like that couple. I'll try getting the next chapter up quicker for you guys.  
__**Naishu- **Wow because of my fic…interesting. And I find humor comes easier then drama and serious types of stuff plus I just like to make people laugh.  
__**Chocomintswirl- **That's ok, I'm just glad that you're back now. Yes poor Mitsuru, he has to suffer from 'innocent Mahiru' and my evil mind.  
__**SekkaiMidoriiroNeko- **Well they are seen very seldom so we really don't know what they do when Mitsuru or Mahiru aren't around that's probably when things quite down. Also I don't think Nozomu would act like that all the time he's also a teenager and needs to unwind. And plus…I got something special planned for the pans and spatula.  
__**Elen- **That dream is my randomness showing through and yes it does add to the entertainment the whole thing with the tag was cute.  
__**MitsukiShiroi- **Really Thanks very much, I like your story so far too (Sorry can't remember the name right now considering it's about 1:15 am)  
__**DeepRedSky- **Wow, I think the waffle helped but I like toaster strudels with the apple filling much better  
__**Alana-StarSugarCat- Alana: **Why thank you. **Evo: **Wow that really describes a lot._


	15. Festival Time pt 2

**A/N: **Ok First off…I gotta apologize to ya all for making you wait like FOREVER. The writing for this just kinda came off and on, not smoothly like it did for most of the other chapters. And also I had started writing this chapter before I went on vacation, but what I had written down was complete and utter crap! I tried IMing it to a friend but it wouldn't send so my guess was that it is so bad that it is never to be read by another person EVER! (And never will be since I deleted it ha!) That and my pens that I would use kept on dying on me as I wrote, there's like a whole margin in a notebook that has nothing but pen circles on it where I tried to get them to work. Anyways, this is chapter 15; it might have something you all have been waiting for in it…ya just have to read to find out!

**Disclaimer:** Ahh…Mitsu, I'll let you take care of this. _Mitsu: _"Yay! The psycho-" OK never mind that Crescent Moon doesn't belong to me.

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

_Dream_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Fifteen: Festival Time! Part 2: Games**

Mahiru was still contemplating when she would tell Mitsuru about listening to that tape which probably contained his deepest thoughts about a person. The thing that creeped her out the most though was the fact the person was her. '_Oh what are you complaining about?' _she scolded herself mentally, '_You like and this is proof that he likes you…subconsciously.' _Her thoughts were shattered by the words, "EARTH TO MAHIRU! Come in are you there?"

Blinking she saw that Mitsuru was standing in front of her waving his hand in front of her face. "Yeah, I'm here."

"I take it you didn't hear the question you were asked."

"What question?"

He sighed for what was probably the twentieth time that night in the course of an hour. "Space Cadet Regular Mahiru, you were asked what the hell you want to do first."

The girl thought for a moment before asking, "Well what do you want to do Grump of the Year, seventeen years straight, Mitsuru?"

"Drop you off the tallest building at the moment." He grumbled to no one in particular. "I'm sorry Mitsuru you'll have to speak up." She retorted, cupping a hand to her ear.

"Nothing!" He half-shouted, _"Damn, it's like she's been possessed by Misoka and he's now acting through her."_

"Oh," the girl shrugged, "I thought I heard you say you wanted to drop me off the tallest building…guess I heard wrong." The tengu had the look of a person who was unexpectedly slapped. "Are you getting an attitude?" When he spoke there was a bit of surprise in his voice, "Damn you've been hanging around me too long."

"That may be true…because the only thing you ever respond to is an attitude, you big jerk!" Mahiru then proceeded to punch him in the arm as hard as she could and he stared at her with a blank expression on his face. "Please tell me that that was a playful-like punch…"

"You mean…you didn't feel anything?"

Mitsuru just shook his head. "_Damn she's a goofball._" Reaching his hand up, the tengu wrapped his fingers around her wrist and started walking. "Come on; let's just walk around till we find something to do. Does that solve it?"

"Yeah." Mahiru sighed following behind Mitsuru; her fist had become unclenched and the other's hand slid down her wrist so that they were walking hand in hand. They had been walking like that silently for some time before Mahiru saw something that caught her eye.

"Hey Mitsuru." At the sound of his name the boy turned around and that was the first time he noticed that he holding her hand. His eyebrow twitched slightly in irritation as he stared at the hand, one word pulsed through his mind, "**_TRAITOR._**" The little voice was, of course, laughing its stupid ass off.

Mahiru was about to ask her question when she saw the look on his face and changed her question to, "Are you okay…you look like your about ready to murder someone."

He blinked, yes it was true that he was ready to murder something – that stupid voice – but he wasn't sure if it was considered a something or someone. "No…now did you have something else you wanted to ask?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "can we go over there please?" She pointed over to a booth that had a machine stretching some sort of pearlescent material.

"Umm…Sure okay." He followed her over; the first thing he noticed was that they were the only ones in the crowd around the machine to be over three foot high, okay maybe about four foot. "Mahiru what are we doing exactly?"

The girl chuckled at him, "We're watching them make taffy." "…" "Haven't you ever had taffy? It's a kind of really chewy candy. Here, let's go try a piece." She led him over to the booth next to the previous one where they gave away samples of the taffy.

Picking up a piece of taffy Mahiru popped it in her mouth and picked up another and handed it to Mitsuru. "Try it." She said through sticky bites holding the piece out so he could take it.

Mitsuru analyzed it for a moment in her hand before picking it up and looking at it in his own hand. From the corner of his eye he saw a sign that had the different colors and what flavor they were on it. In his hand he held a black piece which on the sign stated that it was licorice. "_Can't be too bad._" He thought placing it in his mouth. Within two bites he was ready to gag. It tasted horrible, words could not describe what he tasted it was like…death in taffy form.

His eyebrow twitched slightly; the tengu wanted desperately to spit it out. '_Swallow it damn you,' _the little voice threatened, '_Or I'll badger you worse than I ever have before.' _Mitsuru took a deep breath in his nose and swallowed the taffy; right now he was ready to do almost anything to get that voice to shut up.

"Let's go play some games and ride some rides now!" Mahiru said pulling him along until they got to the games. "So you don't like taffy do you?"

"What are you talking about? I ate it."

"Yeah but your eyebrow twitched. When ever you don't like something like that your eyebrow twitches just slightly. I noticed it whenever you ate mashed potatoes or lime beans." She said walking in the pathway looking at some of the different games. They were the usual kinds of games you'd find at a carnival; lots of throwing and aiming games where you either had to knock over something or get something somewhere and, of course, Mahiru wasn't any good at any of them.

"Hello miss, would you like to try your luck at 'Basket toss'?" One of the guys at a booth asked Mahiru. "You just take three softballs and try to get them in the peach basket…fairly simple." She was about to decline the offer when Mitsuru had cut her off, "I'll try in her place. After all…she's not very coordinated." He stepped up to the table where the guy had placed the softballs.

Picking up the first ball he rolled it around in his hand before tossing it where it landed in the basket with a soft 'plunk'. "_Way too easy._" He thought picking up another and tossing it in the basket. Mitsuru then picked up the last one and lazily threw it in the basket where it landed with the ones he had thrown before.

"Well done sir. You can pick your prize now." Turning his head, the tengu said to the girl, "Pick one out." She stared at him. "What? It's not like I have a use for any of these prizes…they're all stuffed animals."

Mahiru looked at him for a few more seconds before looking at the prizes. "Umm…" She searched through the different ones before deciding. "Can I have the blue tie-dyed teddy bear…please?" Mitsuru looked back at the guy, who then nodded and got a teddy bear that looked exactly like the one hanging up, from a box and handed it to Mitsuru who muttered thanks before heading off in another direction with Mahiru.

"Here's your bear." He said, holding it out to her as they walked. "Thank you Mitsuru." She said, "But I could have done it too ya know."

"Uh huh…sure."

"Really, I could've why didn't you?"

"Because I sill would've had to do it because you would've missed." The boy stated. '_Aww just admit it…You didn't want that guy hitting on her which is exactly what he was going to do.'_

"Would not have!" She defended, why they had begun arguing in the first place was a bit of a mystery to her. "In fact I'll prove that I can do some of these games."

"Umm…okay." The tengu stared at her; he really had no idea why she was being so persistent with this…but hell, he'd play along. "Just pick the game; I really don't care which one." In fact, he hardly even had an idea of how this had started.

Stopping Mahiru looked at some of them, "I know, how about the ring toss…Sounds pretty easy; after all, the only thing you have to do is get one of those rings onto an empty glass soda bottle." As she found out though, it actually it wasn't easy. In fact she missed every single one.

Mitsuru opened his mouth to say something when Mahiru blocked him off. "Before you say anything, I say that we both try a game." He gave a mild shrug, "Alright." She went to get his arm when he added, "Just don't drag me dammit! My arm feels like it's about ready to fall off!"

Ignoring his protests the girl yanked him back to the pathway. "Okay…Let's find a different game."

"How about the game OF NOT RIP MITSURU'S ARM OFF!"

"It will not, stop complaining about it you're being annoying."

The other blinked…this seemed somewhat familiar to him. '_See, this is how she probably feels when you yell at her.' _The voice sighed, '_Finally getting a taste of your own poison Mitsuru?' "Ugh…fine, yes dammit." 'Good…' "And…?" 'And now it's time to start giving out the antidote.' "In your spare time do you just think these stupid sayings of yours up?" '…That's not the point; the point is STOP BEING A JERK!' "Haha I finally got to you." 'Damn you…Now you're on your own.'_

He let out a relieved sigh; Mitsuru had finally gotten that voice to shut up. Not paying attention he bumped into Mahiru who had stopped suddenly. "Oh umm…Sorry. Is something the matter?" he leaned over so that he could see where the girl was looking. "So you wanna do that?"

Where she was looking was down another pathway. Above the stand written in bright bold letters were the words 'OLD FASHION MILK BOTTLE TOSS'. What it was is you were once again given three balls, about the size of a softball this time, which you tried to throw into the hole of the brightly colored milk cans. Was it just him or were all the objects of the games the same exact thing?

"Yeah, let's give it a try Mitsuru."

They walked up to the booth and he almost let out a groan of annoyance; the guy from the first game was standing there watching the people as they tried and failed at the game. "Why hello," He said in a sweet, yet creepy voice to Mahiru, "Have you been having fun tonight?"

"Uhh…Yeah." He smiled. "Well, that's good. I take it that you would like to play this game then?"

"No duh dipshit." The boy behind her muttered under his breath; she turned her head and glared at him, it basically told him, 'I heard that.' After that quick glance she turned back to the guy, "Yes I would please and so would he. Mahiru pointed to Mitsuru.

"Oh…" The enthusiasm that was in his voice left. Silently he placed the six balls on the counter for the two of them. Mitsuru walked up and picked up one up and looked at where he had to throw it. Piece of cake, it was basically like the first game.

Mitsuru tossed the first and just barely missed. Maybe it wouldn't be as easy. "Ooh, ooh Mitsuru!" Mahiru yelled tugging at his sleeve, "Mitsuru I got one in!"

"Feh…beginners luck." He scoffed picking up another and also missing with that one. "…Eh what the hell? Twice in a row now that I missed dammit!"

"Haha Mitsuru, I'm beating you!" Mahiru smirked after she had made her second shot. "Now, let's see if I can make it three for three." Picking up the last one she closed her eyes and concentrated hard on her goal. Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes and released the ball from her grip. Jus seconds later they heard a resounding 'clunk' signifying that it had landed in its designated place.

"Gah Mitsuru I – I did it. I can't believe I actually did it!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever." The teen next to her said. "Dammit." He cursed as his last ball dangled on the rim before falling off onto the ground.

"What were you saying before Mitsuru about how I wouldn't be able to do any of these games?" The Princess asked playfully.

"Oh just shut up and pick your prize already!"

"Hahaha alright. Hmm…I know, I want the purple tie-dyed bear, please."

The boy waited as she got her bear. "Okay, now what?" She asked. Her question was answered by her own stomach that emitted a low growl making her blush in embarrassment.

Mitsuru walked up to her with his hands in his pockets and simply stated, "Well, get some food of course."

_TBC_

**A/N: **_Kt: _So did I have what you wanted in there? I did didn't I?  
_Mitsu: "Umm…Katie there is a large angry mob gathered outside your window."  
__Kt: _Large angry mob…_goes to window ready to surrender self to mob  
__Mitsu: "Oh no you don't…I know Chemistry is tough but deal with it woman you can get through it."  
__Mitsu: "Anyways since the authoress basically went off the deep end I'll tell ya that she's really sorry for taking FOREVER to update. R&R please and thanks!"_

**Reviewers, there's so many reviews now for one chapter that I think that I won't be able to give responses…that I think they're banned too.**

**THANKS FOR R&R: **_Poisonmoon; MitsukiShiroi; Anime Lover; Writergirl118; JesusGirl883; Hyperkitty16; Motokonbaka; Elen; Maiden of the Setting Sun; sacred-priestess; DeepRedSky; Kyoko-chan; Alana-StarSugarCat; Mad-4-Manga; LadyJasmine282; Ai Kichiko; pitbull123; yoshiru; mitsurunozomulover; Riia; softshadows; Avian_

_Pants "_Is that all? Well I hope so if not, so Sorry! It's a bit late so the brain is a bit fried."  
"_I thought it was always fried."  
_Oh shut up.


	16. Festival Time pt 3

**A/N: **Hi everybody how you all doing? Very long time no update from me; I can see that you're all probably on the verge of bringing severe amounts of pain on me so I'm going to keep this hopefully pretty short. First, if you have been waiting for the big kiss moment I'm gonna tell you right now that this is not the chapter you've been waiting for. Lastly that last word in the title of this chapter is spelled correctly it's just one of the words that me and my sister use to replace family. Why; I have no clue so now onto the chapter!

**Disclaimer:** Yeah and I'm an extremely powerful fire demon named Calcifer! And I don't even own that line dammit I'm trapped from all sides here, time to think of an escape plan…

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

_Dream_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Sixteen: Festival Time! Part 3: A Death in the Fandamily **

"Well, come on start walking!" Mitsuru half-shouted behind him. The two had decided on getting some food since Mahiru's stomach was growling like a bear. "I'm coming! It's not my fault that I have to run to practically keep up!" she defended panting along.

Mahiru had been paying no real attention to the boy ahead of her, so it was a sudden surprise to her when he stopped and she ran into him. She almost fell down but two hands had grasped onto her shoulders holding her tightly. (Not actual hugging…that's later.) She looked up at Mitsuru, for he was the one who had caught her, spinning around at the last moment. "Thanks."

"No problem, just be a little more careful next time." He said letting her go; walking next to her, his normal stride abandoned for more of a shuffle so that the Princess was able to keep up with him.

'_Oh that was so sweet of you dear Mitsuru.' "What in the hell are you talking about?"_ He asked the voice, which was supposedly mad and was going to keep its damn mouth shut. '_Don't play stupid with me. I know you let her win that stupid game…After all it doesn't take that much noticeable wind power to make those things land where you wanted them to land.' "Damn, I guess you caught me." _

'_I probably wouldn't have if you had made at least one of those shots and if I couldn't see the wind currents that were guiding the balls. You have more brains than I thought…Oh and let us not forget my favorite reason of why I know, I am part of your brain dumbass.' "Gee…thanks. Now go back to being pissed off so you'll stay quiet." 'Aww…alright.'_ It was then once again silent within the boy's head.

"Soo…" He said trying to fill the awkward gap that had appeared. "What do you want to eat?"

Mahiru stared at him quizzically, "Huh? Mitsuru we aren't even there yet."

"Well figure out what you want now so you don't waste your time there."

"Hey, good point." She said, thinking about what sounded good. "How about apple-filled waffles?" The boy stopped for the second time. "Mahiru…" He shook his head, "A: that sounds completely gross and B: waffles are for breakfast, this is dinner."

"Hey people eat waffles for dinner too!" she exclaimed. To that he replied, "Well they're weird! We're not eating waffles!"

"Geeze alright don't go havin' a flying cow on me." She laughed, "I was just jokin' …Besides I don't think they have apple-filled waffles here."

"Thankfully," Mitsuru grunted. "I want spaghetti instead." She smiled.

Mitsuru sweat dropped, "Why…Ok…Obviously you're now just naming foods." He sighed, "Why don't you just choose pepperoni pizza or something along those lines?"

"Oooookkkayyy." She said in a smiley sing-songy voice.

"That…was just creepy." He said as he started to walk along. Reaching the food area he told her, "You go get us a place to sit…I'll go get the food. Oh and what do you want to drink?"

"Mountain Dew!"

"Diet or regular? Never mind, diet, you're already sugar high enough as it is."

"But I haven't eaten any sugar."

"My point exactly, so go sit down."

Mahiru did as she was told picking a table and setting her two new, recently won teddy bears down. Sitting down she smiled to them, "Well, this has been a fun evening so far." '_Which is exactly why I haven't told Mitsuru about that tape yet, if he knew about that, he just might blow a fuse'_ Mahiru sweat dropped, "Boy would that not be pretty." She mumbled to herself.

"What wouldn't be pretty?" Mitsuru asked coming from behind her with the food.

"Oh umm…nuh-nothing." Mahiru said quickly almost jumping out of her seat. "Wow that was fast." She said trying to change the subject.

If Mitsuru had noticed that she was trying to change the subject he hadn't showed it as he gave the explanation of why it was fast. "It was a shorter line than I originally thought…But the lady at the counter was dumber than a box of rocks." He shook his head. "Actually the box would be a genius compared to her.

At that precise moment was when Mahiru had decided to take a long drink of her Mountain Dew and she started laughing which caused her to start choking on the beverage, with some of it even coming out of her nose. The girl sat the drink down on the table and coughed to the side trying to remove the carbonated liquid from her lungs. While still hacking she felt a shift in the bench as a person sat down beside her. This person then placed a hand on her back, rubbing gently from side to side. "Easy now." This voice was of course unmistakably that of Mitsuru's.

Still coughing she turned to look at him and that was when a paper napkin was placed on her face to wipe off any of the drink that had somehow found its way there. She finally stopped coughing and allowed one word to escape her lips like a harsh whisper, "Owww…"

Before she could say anything else more she heard a quickly spoken apology from Mitsuru. Looking up at him it suddenly dawned on her at just how close they had become; both of his hands had wound up on her back and her had moved to his chest. If either of them moved five inches closer to the other then there would be no such thing as space between the two of them.

Mitsuru seemed to also notice this and his face instantly flared to a light shade of pink that clashed with his hair. She had an idea of what was going through his head at the moment in time, more than likely it was the same exact thing going through her mind; the obliteration of that space between them. Slowly she moved forward and slowly he moved backwards, like a strange game of follow the leader.

Eventually what will happen is that they'll run out of bench and gravity will take hold. When that happen Mitsuru found himself eye-level with both the table and the two teddy bears staring lifelessly at him. A barely noticeable shiver ran up his spine before he turned to look at Mahiru who was staring at him like the teddy bears were staring at him. This scared the shit out of him for she had never had this intense of a gaze and it made him feel that if she was able to stare hard enough she might just be able to look straight through him.

'_Dude…I think you finally turned her mental through lack of oxygen by Mountain Dew.' _The voice said; if it had a body or at least a head it would've been gapping at her. "_Oh shut up, did not,"_ Mitsuru snapped back, "_At least I don't think I did." 'I think you did.' "Other than yourself, who really cares what you think?" 'Very deep down you do, very VERY deep down.' "Do I care about that deep down?" 'No, but- GAH watch out girl approaching!'_

Mitsuru blinked out of the stupor he was in to see that Mahiru had leaned down so that she was eye-level with him. "I have to tell you something…" she said, running her fingers through his hair, making it stick out at all different angles. It also made Mitsuru gulp loudly for if she did anything right now he had no means of escape at all. "I still can't believe that you have hair gel in you hair."

"Don't think that it's going to become a habit," He said standing up and smoothing his hair back down. "This shit is nasty as hell and takes forever. Plus it makes me feel like I'm turning Nozomu and that is not a pleasant feeling; I feel like one of these days I'm gonna wake up and POOF! blonde hair." He said sitting down on the bench on the other side of the table.

Mahiru let out a laugh. "Don't worry, I don't think that'll happen and having a Nozomu look-a-like with your attitude would be somewhat on the scary side." She smiled at him to show that she meant it as a joke.

Mitsuru looked downwards trying to conceal a small smile. It didn't work though because as soon as it happened Mahiru caught him and told him, "It's alright…you don't have to hide your smile. Now come on and lemme see it."

As fast as that smile came it had gone and he snapped a bit more harshly than he actually meant to, "Dammit just eat the friggin' pizza before it gets cold!"

Without another word Mahiru picked up a piece of pizza and before taking a bite stuck her tongue out at him in a childish gesture. He looked at her for a few seconds before picking up a slice himself and eating it. The rest of the dinner after that was spent eating in silence.

While they were eating, high above them on the strands of lights that were strung all about the fair grounds was a little bat observing them. Not just any old little bat though; it was one of Nozomu's highly trained bats.

(_The End that's all bye bye now. Ok I'm kidding calm down and read while sharpening your umm…weaponry.) _

BACK AT THE MOONSHINE…

Nozomu was on the floor of the living room laughing his head off. For about the past hour or so he had been watching Mitsuru make a complete idiot of himself through the bat he had sent out earlier behind the two.

The only reason he hadn't gone himself was due to a certain fox whose won't be mentioned. (CoughcoughMisokacoughhack) He had made Nozomu stay home having told him to 'Leave Mitsuru alone for once.' And the best come back Nozomu could think up for it… 'You small evil meanie!'

Thinking back on it, the response reminded Misoka of a five year old. Though of course lately that had been how Nozomu was acting, like a five year old with that big obsession over threatening and beating Akira with a damn frying pan and spatula. '_One of these days,' _He thought, '_Akira is going to wind up beating the mother loving crap out of him.'_

Misoka stood where he was behind the couch for a few moments and when Nozomu hadn't stopped laughing; the kitsune did the only thing that could shut the vampire up. He walked over and kicked him.

At that time Akira had come bounding down from upstairs curious as to what all the racket was. "Nozomu has finally gone off the deep end and has not stopped laughing for about ten minutes straight." Misoka told the curious wolf. "And it's starting to get pretty damn annoying."

"Have ya tried kicking him?"

"Yes, just before you came down here. I don't even think he felt it." Misoka told him, looking down at the hysterical vampire. He hoped this was not the day he has to finally call the psychiatric hospital.

Akira also stood there looking at Nozomu when he got an idea. As the plan formulated in his head his eyes got bigger and bigger. It barely registered when Misoka looked over at him saying, "Dear gods not you too!"

With the plan still forming the were-wolf walked to the kitchen saying that he was going to start on dinner. After that it was quiet- aside from Nozomu's laughter- for half of an hour until the smoke alarm started screeching bloody murder and smoke was spewing from the kitchen. Immediately Nozomu was up on his feet, "Holy shit Akira what the hell you tryin' to do, set the whole damn bar on fire!"

He stomped into the kitchen followed closely behind by the fox. For Misoka when he waked into the kitchen area he wasn't sure which emotion he should allow to show, shock or humor. Akira was over by the stove, there were two twisted metal items on there, what they once were he didn't know but had a pretty good idea. A certain frying pan and spatula.

"It seems you had a bit of trouble with the stove Akira." Misoka smirked. The icing on the cake though was the look on Nozomu's face. His eyes had become about the size of basketballs, his mouth was open farther than jaw should have been able to open and he seemed devoid of all words.

Then finally he spoke with all the anger his voice could muster from the deep sadness that was enveloping him. "How…how could you? You sick son of a bitch, you killed defenseless kitchen utensils!" Tears started leaking slowly down Nozomu's face as he walked over to the stove and cradled the destroyed items in his arms, whispering softly to them.

He placed them back on the stove and slinked toward the garage area. "Now where are you going Nozomu?" Misoka inquired.

"TO GET A SHOVEL!" He snapped.

"Why?"

"CAUSE I'M GONNA BURY THEM YOU HEARTLESS ASSHOLE!" And he stormed out. About ten minutes later he came in from the backyard and grabbed his "friends" from the stove. When the door to the backyard shut again there came from the yard something that sounded like "Taps."

Akira went to the backdoor and looked out, "What is he doing Misoka?"

"No doubt his brain has probably fried and he's gone off the deep end into a dark black abyss that he must now pull himself out of…"

"Huh?"

"He's finally gone crazy. Now go upstairs and get ready." Misoka told the were-wolf turning to exit the kitchen.

"Get ready for what?" The demon fox turned around with a mischievous look in his eyes. "Why we're going to a festival Akira."

Then Misoka left the kitchen allowing that sentence to explain all.

_TBC_

**A/N: **Once again I have delayed the kiss, this time I'm truly sorry, I haven't meant to torture you like this. I'll admit the first few times were a bit funny, now it's just getting mean. I shall now leave you to sharpen your weaponry and hunt me down.


	17. Confessions Do or Die Time

**A/N: **Umm yeah…I had to take an AP exam, it was evil, it's near the end of the school year and if I have to have Festival Time for one more chapter, I'm going to go postal. Thankfully before that can happen though I've changed the name of the chapter. And time has just flown since I last updated so I'm trying the fastest I can. Have fun reading and as a side note the two extra names in here (Daisuke and Sakura) were chosen at complete randomness so no yelling at me.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I did but I don't own it and I'm still working on my escape plan from the last chapter, I just might be a while.

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

"_Thoughts also when two sides of the brain are arguing"_

_Dream_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Seventeen: Confessions (Do or Die Time)**

It was after dinner, which had made a death in a graveyard look like a New Year's Party. Mahiru apologized over and over for any insult she may have dropped anytime through out the entire night. Each time Mitsuru shrugged it off and kept silent.

After a while during what seemed to be Mahiru's hundredth time apologizing to him, the silent boy finally spoke, "I'll be back in a moment, stay here."

"Alright." She said as he walked off in some obscure direction. When he turned a corner she leaned up against the pole of a nearby booth. "It's becoming a category six disaster and fast," she murmured to herself, "I have no choice…I have to tell him about it now before he gets majorly ticked and leaves. Better to do it sooner than later, or now rather never; it's the do or die time. Okay death is a bit extreme but still…"

She sighed, but when and how to tell was the problem. After all, this _was_ Mitsuru; she couldn't just walk up to him and say, 'Hey, Mitsuru, I listened to your tape and I feel the same way you do, let's start going out without having to resort to trickery and threats.' It just simply ISN'T done, unless you want lots of pain and possibly death.

As the girl was contemplating how this was going to be done, the boy who had been running the ball toss appeared next to her behind the booth she had been leaning against. "Hey," he said, "haven't gotten to talk to you much. You've been hanging around that guy all night, I thought maybe I'd never get to talk to you, but here you are." The boy gave a warm smile, but something about it seemed fake.

"Umm…Excuse me, but do I know you from anywhere other than tonight?" she asked, "I feel like l should, but I'm drawing a blank."

"Oh, silly me, I'm Daisuke. You and I go to school together."

'_Oh yeah I remember him now!'_ Mahiru thought. "But wait, why would you want to talk to me? Don't you have a girlfriend? Sakura I believe her name was, yeah that's it, Sakura."

Daisuke shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah…I did but I found something, a little more to my liking." As he said this he gave Mahiru a once over with his eyes.

Mahiru didn't get the hint that Daisuke had been giving her at all. "Oh poor girl. I hope Sakura isn't too badly upset, I'll have to give her a call later and see how she's doing."

Daisuke sweat-dropped, but before he could say anything else to Mahiru a voice behind them cleared its throat to show that he was standing right there. Mahiru turned around saying, "Hey Mitsuru! Where did you go to anyways?" No sooner than she said that she about squealed with delight.

Mitsuru was holding two extremely large chocolate soft-serve ice cream cones. "I, uh, knew that you liked chocolate and, um, figured you wanted some, er, dessert."

"Thanks a lot Mitsuru, I really appreciate it," she smiled at him.

"In fact," he handed both cones to her, "why don't you go pick out someplace that you would like to sit and eat it and I'll catch up to ya in a few." Mitsuru said, gently ushering her away from the booth.

"Mitsuru?"

"Don't worry; I'll only be a few minutes, I promise." He tried a small smile but since he was not completely used to it yet, the smile looked more like a cringe.

"If you say so…" He was definitely acting strange, but it was better not to question his actions. "I'm gonna sit up on the bridge that overlooks the river if that's all right with you."

"That's nice, see you soon." Mitsuru was still smiling until he saw her turn a corner and disappear. The smile disintegrated from his lips as he turned to the other boy.

Daisuke was about to give the guy, who had been blocking his attempts to hook with Mahiru, a piece of his mind when he turned toward him. Walking toward him, this Mitsuru, as Mahiru had called him, grabbed Daisuke by the collar of his shirt and dragged him off to an alley situated between two buildings. Mitsuru threw him against the wall, (for Mitsuru himself it was more like a light toss) feet dangling about three inches off the ground and he was pinned up against the wall by Mitsuru's right arm. And of course Mitsuru had him pinned by his neck therefore cutting off Daisuke's air supply. Needless to say, Mitsuru was REALLY pissed off at this guy.

"Listen and listen good you miserable piece of shit. I hate repeating myself and any threats over and over because it gets annoying as hell, understand me?" There was, of course, the sound of choking but nothing else. Mitsuru pressed his arm harder to the boy's neck. "Nod dammit if you understand." Daisuke nodded. "That's good, now stay the hell away from Mahiru and if I ever see you flirting with her again, I swear by all that is holy that people will never EVER find your remains. Is that clear to you?"

There were a few noises before Daisuke said, "That doesn't scare me."

Mitsuru looked at him; this was officially the stupidest human being he had ever met. "You're stupider than you look." He pushed his arm just a bit harder against the boy's throat; he was now turning a lovely shade of purple from lack of air. "Now… let's try this again, and if I have to do this one more time I'm going to hurt you severely and then later hunt you down. You ever come near my girl again like you have tonight I will beat the mother loving shit out of you. Do you understand that?"

The boy shook his head as much as he possibly could. "Alright then," Mitsuru dropped him, "get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind." Daisuke ran like a bat out of hell in the opposite direction of Mitsuru. "Glad that's over." He muttered on his way to meet Mahiru.

That was when the voice decided to bring itself out of silence by singing, '_I say you say, what can make me feel this way? My girl, my girl, talkin' 'bout my girl.'_ And then it started laughing, it would repeat the song then start laughing again. "_And what, may I ask is so damn funny?"_ The voice tried to answer but every time broke down into hysterics. "_Dammit get a grip on yourself!"_

There was silence before the voice said, '_You Mitsuru, you crack the hell out of me.' "What did I do?" 'Okay there was that one time when you got drunk off eggnog-,' "Not that time, now dammit!" 'Alright then, how about your constant denials that you actually have immense feelings other than hate for Mahiru.' "How many times do we have to go through that?" 'And I'm not done so sushmar. THEN there's this boy whose very existence in this plane a.k.a. life you threatened for flirting with Mahiru.' "OH shit." 'AND then you basically call her your GIRLFRIEND!'_

The voice once again broke down in hysterical laughter and Mitsuru wanted to jump off a cliff onto sharp rocks. How, how could he allow himself to slip up like that? "Shit," he mumbled, "shit, shit, shit." '_Now,'_ The voice said all cheerful, _'Since you have indeed made it known to yourself. No, I take that. Now that you have admitted to yourself and others that you do indeed like Mahiru and think of her in that way you've only got one thing left to do…' "Never, never in a million damn years will I-," 'You want to get rid of me don't you? The great annoyance that has been bugging you since that night she brought you back from the dead. I may not have been saying things, the only reason I started talking to you was because your skull is so damn thick you can't register anything! Just admit and give in to the fact that you like her and do give a shit about how she feels!'_

During the whole conversation Mitsuru had been walking and came to sit down upon the steps that led up to the bridge. Placing his head in his hands he sighed, "_I can't do it." 'If you tell me that one more time, I will take over this body and beat the shit out of you. Swallow your damn pride already, that's what's putting you through this hell.' _Mitsuru shook his head muttering over and over, several times, "I've gone crazy, I've finally gone crazy."

A few yards away in their "spy attire" Akira and Misoka were carefully observing the tengu. "Misoka, what exactly is going on with Mitsuru?" Akira asked looking over at the older of the two.

"I believe Akira…that he is finally coming to a realization that-," At that moment Mahiru had yelled out Mitsuru's name. "Quick, move!" Misoka hissed pulling Akira out of the aisle, way behind one of the booths.

"Why'd we have to move?" Akira questioned Misoka again.

"If Mitsuru spotted us neither of us would see our next birthday, and that would be if we were lucky." The fox explained, "If we weren't lucky, we wouldn't see tomorrow at all."

The younger grimaced, "That would be very bad. But uhh, what was he coming to a realization about?"

Misoka sighed, "Keep watching and you'll figure it out…eventually."

Back at the bridge Mahiru yelled down, "Hey silly! If you don't hurry up, you're going to have to drink this ice cream instead!"

Mitsuru hopped onto his feet like a scared rabbit, cursing himself for doing so. Making sure no one was around Mitsuru used his short-cut of going straight up instead of using the stairs. Mahiru didn't expect it and let out a small scream. "Meh-Mitsuru! I didn't expect that."

He looked at her, "Expect what? I always fly everyday. Or at least I used to until you fell and Oboro ordered me to walk everywhere with you." Instead of turning over a new leaf after his talk with the voice in his head, he stayed the same old grumpy, I hate everyone in the world, damn everything, Mitsuru.

Mahiru was speechless at that remark, it had been awhile since she heard one of those types of remarks; after all, anything over twenty minutes is a record for him, yet at the same time, Mahiru was nearing the end of her patience rope and was about ready to snap. The girl instead tried for her more usual apologetic tone…in the opinion of the authoress, really should have gone with throwing ice cream at him, but that's a waste of perfectly good ice cream. "I'm sorry Mitsuru, it's just that I'm used to more normal ways of things. Oh and here's your ice cream too." She held out the cone for him to take.

He took the ice cream, "Feh, for information woman, I'm NOT normal. Therefore I don't care if I meet your normal standards and the only reason I'm here is because of your damned blackmailing scheme." Mitsuru glared angrily at the ice cream as if it were the cause of all this "trouble" instead of Mahiru.

"Mitsuru," she sighed, "I give up. With you I just can't win, it's like beating your head against a brick wall. The wall doesn't budge and all that it's left you with is a headache." Mitsuru rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I don't care."

"But I do care! It's your fault that I have to resort to blackmail!"

"How the hell is it my fault?"

"BECAUSE YOU DON'T TALK TO PEOPLE! THE ONLY WAY I COULD EVEN FIND OUT HOW YOU FELT ABOUT ME WAS TO LISTEN TO THAT STUPID TAPE OF YOURS!" She cried.

_**Really quickly back to our spies…**_

Akira was wide-eyed at the fact that that was probably the first time he had ever heard Mahiru yell at somebody like that. Misoka was trying his best not to completely breakdown into hysterics, resulting in his entire body shaking.

"Uhh what's so funny?"

Immediately Misoka recomposed himself. "The fact that she listened to a tape…poor girl." He let a breath escape, "Of course Mitsuru's probably wishing that he never thought of those dreams in the first place."

"Misoka, what did you do to Mitsuru?"

The fox looked at him dead in the eye. Staring up at the wolf he said, "I swear on my honor that for once since I have met Mitsuru that I did not do this. He did it all himself."

"You promise you're telling the truth."

"Akira, if I had done it I would be bragging about it like all the other pranks. This time it was all his own doing. Now enough with the questions, we have to see what happens next."

_**And now, back to our regularly scheduled couple…**_

Mitsuru stood there stunned. If he walked, no ran, about twenty feet in the opposite direction of Mahiru he'd be over the river. Then there was only a small hop and a bit of a fall between here and oblivion. But then again it could be another ploy and he wanted to make sure of that because he died once. That time was a bitch and the second time around definitely wasn't going to be enjoyable.

_TBC_

**A/N:** Dammit this was supposed to be THE chapter! Dammit, dammit, dammit! Curse my thinking that this chapter was becoming too long! Well on a positive note of this, I've already got a good portion of the next chapter written out so I'm hoping to have to before the end of the month. Just to be on the safe side though, if I don't update before June 16 don't expect to update until about July 10 or 11 because I'm going to be at Transylvania University in Lexington Ky. For 3 weeks to Governor's School for the Arts, I'm going for Visual Art. Tata until next time!


	18. A War, Fireworks, and Something More

**A/N: **Sorry! I tried to get this chappie out before I went to GSA but that sure as hell wasn't going to happen and then stop and go writing happened and now it's finally here. I started school again too, major bummer. Onward!

**Disclaimer:** And Jaws is a giant goldfish and I now have my escape plan….MITSU GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE! (Mitsu of course being the butt-head he is refuses) OK back to the drawing board then…

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

"_Thoughts also when two sides of the brain are arguing"_

_Dream_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Eighteen: A War, Fireworks, and Something More**

Mahiru grabbed Mitsuru's wrist to keep him from running off. "I know what you're thinking and trust me; your jumping off this bridge won't work. For if you try, I'm coming right after you, therefore any attempts to drown yourself are sunk. No pun intended there."

"I wasn't thinking that!" He snapped. (Liar!) What Mitsuru hadn't noticed was that a lovely shade of pink had started creeping up his neck and onto his face. "But if you really did listen to- to that tape how- how far did…" he took a deep breath trying to calm himself but was failing completely.

Mahiru finished for him, "I- uh…got all the way up to the uhh the one after the one about getting married…" It was then her turn to blush though Mitsuru looked like he had the worst case of sun-burn ever to be recorded. "You-er-mean the one on the honeymoon thing one…"

"Yeah…" She tried not to think back to that but it was a little harder than she expected and soon the two looked like they were having a contest of who could blush the hardest and reddest. "_That one, it just had to be that one…dear gods I wanna die."_ He moaned inside his head. The voice sent an image of patting Mitsuru's back in sympathy, '_Oh geeze man, I feel for you. I feel greatly for ya, how embarrassing.'_

Mitsuru was so deep into his self-loathing and self-pity that he didn't realize that several minutes had passed and Mahiru was now finished being embarrassed, with her face back to its normal color. Looking over she saw Mitsuru zoned-out, red as could be; in fact, it reminded her of a strawberry. Taking a little bit of her slowly melting ice cream onto her finger she moved her hand closer until the ice cream touched his nose.

The boy vaguely felt the ice coldness and moved his eyes to look into her smiling face and then looked down at the ice cream on his face, "What the hell?"

"You're now a chocolate covered strawberry." She giggled, trying to lighten the mood and forget about that one particular dream. He merely looked at her then down at his ice cream then up at her face again; there was a bit of a glint in his eye that wasn't there before.

"Mitsuru what's on your min-," Before she could finish a chocolate ice cream was shoved into her face. "Chocolate covered peach." He smirked.

Mahiru's mouth was gapping at the shock of having ice cream flung in her face- especially the fact that it was Mitsuru- and at the fact that it was cold and going up her nose. "Oh no you…" she grabbed a handful of the chocolaty dessert, "didn't!" And threw it at him.

That was when the chocolate war began of flinging ice cream, dodging it unsuccessfully while Mahiru half shrieked from laughter and the coldness of the ice cream. Ten minutes later the two were sitting against the railing covered in sticky, melted ice cream and completely out of breath, where the cones went, one could only guess.

"Wow," The girl said regaining her breath, "That was…fun. Don't you agree?"

Mitsuru looked at her, "Yeah, it was a lot of fun actually…" The boy was vaguely aware of placing his hand on her cheek, stroking her face gently.

Mahiru asked quietly, "Mitsu, what are you-,"

"Shh…" Mitsuru cut off her question; slowly he leaned in towards her. She then realized what was about to happen and froze waiting to feel the softness of his lips against hers.

She closed her eyes; by now she could feel the warmth of his breath. This was it, it was THE moment. It was her first kiss, and not only that, but it was Mitsuru who was going to kiss her. It was a moment that she had only dreamed about and it was only centimeters away when…

**BOOM! BOOM! POP! BOOM!** (Muwhaha…you didn't think it was gonna come that quick! Oh you did…sorry.)

Fireworks had erupted so loudly and suddenly that Mahiru gave a small scream, jerking backwards with her heart feeling like it was going to thud right out of her chest at a million miles a minute. "Ge- Geezel Pete's…that was pretty sudden eh Mitsuru?"

"Yeah, sure was." He sighed heavily. Inside he was cursing those 'damn people who set off those damn fireworks'. He had been so close to Mahiru and they ruined it. '_Don't worry, it's like riding a bike, and falling off the bike. You were close and then you fell off so now what do you do?' "Pray that your head didn't get cracked open?" 'NO! YOU GET BACK ON THE DAMN BIKE MORON!' "Haha you essentially called yourself a moron." '…Oh you…shut up!' "Now who's cranky?"_ After that the voice sat in its little recliner in Mitsuru's mind and brooded. For once it seemed that Mitsuru had gotten the better of the voice.

Mitsuru had been looking down at the pavement and his shoes when he decided to look up and over at Mahiru. He stared at her profile as it changed color from the fireworks her eyes had opened wide trying to drink in the exploding fireworks all at once and her lips slightly parted with awe. He thought to himself that she actually was quite pretty. This was also when he realized that a certain sort of calm had settled over him, all his feeling of rage and anger had simply vanished. Where they had gone to he had no idea but he knew that as soon as he spoke to any of the other Bandits those emotions would come back full force. But until that time came he decided to just be content.

_timeelapseTIMEELAPSEtimeelapse_

After what seemed only a few short minutes but was actually more like half an hour the fireworks had ended and the teens stood up to stretch their muscles that had become stiff from sitting for so long. "So what should we do now Mitsu?"

"I dunno…You wanna ride some of the rides they have?"

"No, not really. You see ever since I was little I've always been afraid that the ride would completely collapse into a huge heap while I was on it. So I just never go on them."

"Yeah that would happen with your luck wouldn't it?" He smirked.

"Ahh! Mitsu, you're so mean!" Mahiru gasped giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. After that she started skipping towards the stairs calling out behind her, "Come on Mitsu, let's go walk on the beach!"

"Alright I'm coming!" He called back, jogging to catch up with her. Soon they were walking through the festival which had now become quite crowded since their arrival over an hour ago. And as they were walking the little voice screeched out, '_MISOKA IS HERE SOMEWHERE I CAN SENSE IT!'_ Mitsuru sighed inwardly. "_That guy just can't let me have any peace and quiet can he?"_

_Now, a word from our spies…_

Misoka and Akira were sitting at a table in the food area, each enjoying a snow cone when Akira asked, "Umm Misoka, why did we make them set the fireworks off so early?"

Misoka swallowed the crushed ice in his mouth before answering. "To distract the two while they were up there. I mean, come on, a bridge as their first kiss? You'd have to be out of your mind if you thought that that was romantic!"

Akira shook his head acting like he understood the fox's logic. "Okay I give up, speak without using so any words or re-wording or something."

"A bridge is a stupid place for a first kiss. They are out of their minds if they think it's a good place." The older said mechanically. Seconds later his head was cracked against something that felt as hard as lead – turns out it was Akira's head- and was seeing stars.

Between the two of them appeared Mitsuru. "I think that just about every person in the damned Lunar Race is out of their mind, _especially _the residents of the Moonshine," he growled.

Misoka was rendered, for the first time in his life, speechless. "How…"

"I just had this feeling that you'd stick your damn nose in my personal business. So some advice for you to keep you from immense pain and agony: Don't freaking bother us anymore! If I find either of you around here again spying on me I will kill the both of you. Now go the hell home and while you're at it go and tell the damn vampire not to come down here either or he'll meet the same fate."

Misoka shrugged his shoulders, "Nozomu's not in his right frame of mind at the current moment. We just came to get some fresh air and to be away from our poor, depressed vampire, right Akira?"

He bobbed his head up and down, "Yep, yep."

The tengu rolled his eyes, "Bullshit," he banged their heads together again. "You're here to make life a living hell as usual. How do I know this? Because fireworks don't just go off at random times like they just did ya dumbasses. So leave us alone already." He hadn't realized it, but Mitsuru's voice held bits of both weariness and pleading.

Misoka was shocked; he hadn't known that Mitsuru's voice could hold anything other than anger or stupidity. He gave a mock sigh of defeat, "Oh alright, if it'll stop you bashing our heads then we'll leave." The fox swept Mitsuru's hand aside as he stood up, "Come on Akira let's go."

"But what about-,"

"Forget it lets just go Akira." He dragged the younger boy out of his chair toward the direction of the exit.

"What's going on Misoka? I thought we were staying." Akira whispered looking behind himself to see if Mitsuru was still there.

"Oh, we are," replied the fox, "We'll just let him think that we've left…Is he gone now?"

When Akira looked back at where they had been he saw that Mitsuru had vanished, "Yep, he's gone."

Okay let's go, but try not to get caught again."

_We once again bring you to the calmer half of the couple, Mahiru._

"Now where'd that darn boy get to?" She murmured to herself. They had walked into a large crowd, getting separated and now she couldn't find him. How you lost a boy his height with shocking aqua hair that stood out in a crowd, Mahiru had no idea but she just had.

As she turned around in a circle scanning the crowd she heard Mitsuru yell from behind, "I'm over here!" She swirled around to see that he was standing off to one side of a large avenue of booths.

Mahiru darted in and out of the swarm of people over to Mitsuru. She could've sworn that he wasn't there a second ago when she looked at that spot the first time. "I lost you; I had no idea where you went."

"I got here a few seconds ago…I umm…I got a bit lost," he lied.

Mahiru tucked both of the stuffed bears under one arm and taking her free hand placed it in Mitsuru's, intertwining their fingers. She smiled saying, "There, now you can't get lost anymore."

For a brief moment Mitsuru stared at her confused. He felt like he should say something but he didn't know what. He still felt as lost and confused as he was a half hour ago and her grabbing his hand and saying that wasn't much of a help to him. How could a person deal with all the shit he was giving them and still like him like she did? It made absolutely no sense to him.

As Mitsuru pondered over this and several other similar questions, he and Mahiru had once again started on their way to the beach area. His mind picked endlessly at the questions, never quite able to come up with a satisfactory answer. '_Whoa man, calm down.'_ The voice said,_ 'Philosophical questions like that are very, VERY bad for your mental status. Here's a simple answer: It's a thing called love. It's patient, kind, forgiving, and puts up with your assholishness. Don't ask why it does, it just does and you waste precious moments worrying about it so just don't worry about it. Did you understand all that?'_

"_Yeah…Basically, I understood the first part and the last part, and the middle just sounded like ranting."_ Mitsuru replied. '_Yay Mitsuru understood something! Star sticker for him!' "Oh shut the hell up already."_

While the two of them were walking side by side through the street they were quiet. Mitsuru speaking internally with the voice and Mahiru freaking out on the inside. '_I can't believe I did that! I grabbed his hand. I **grabbed** Mitsuru's hand! And he didn't freak…he must be sick.'_

"Umm, Mitsuru are you feeling alright?" she asked him.

"Oh yeah, I'm alright. I was just thinking that uhh…those bears of yours, yeah, they're probably gonna need a bag to go in." Mitsuru grabbed a plastic bag from the nearest booth and handed it to her. "After all, since we'll be going down to the beach and ya don't want to get sand on them."

Mahiru said a word of thanks, placing the bears into the bag. She decided to not mention the fact that the bag was pointless due to the fact that they had already ruined them with melted ice cream.

The two finally made it to the beach. From there they could hear some of the music that was being played at the festival. It had a fast, pulsating beat like every other song that are played to make people get up and dance.

Mitsuru sat on a large rock with the bagged teddy bears sitting next to him and Mahiru was down in the sand dancing around to the music. Every once and a while she would turn her head to look at Mitsuru just in time to see him look away from her.

'_Yo, Mitsuru, it's okay to look, you're eyes won't melt from it and besides, the lady likes that you're lookin'. So look dammit.' _The voice said; didn't it have anything better to do? Apparently not.

Slowly the tengu took his eyes away from a patch of grass that he had been vaguely staring at to look into Mahiru's smiling face. His face flushed red and he quickly broke eye contact, going back to the grassy area. "_Okay, I looked, happy?"_ The voice sighed, _'I guess that'll do.'_

She giggled. "Oh Mitsu - ru. Get your butt down off the rock and join me."

"No."

"Why not? Come on, it's fun."

"I – I," He turned his body so that Mahiru was able to see his entire profile. "I…can't…dance…like that."

The girl giggled again, "That's it? Well phooey on that." She skipped over to him and pulled on his wrist. "I'll show you how, it's simple."

Mitsuru had no choice but to follow as Mahiru pulled him onto the sandy beach, just a little too close to the water for his comfort. "Okay, 'How to Dance 101.' First you have to move your hips." Mahiru placed her hands on either side of his waist and moved his hips from side to side in rhythm with her own movements.

The boy had been unsure of what to do for a while until Mahiru started moving his hips. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" He exclaimed in irritation, grabbing her hands and shoving them at her own sides. He held them there for a minute, his eyes closed and his left eyebrow twitching as he counted to ten.

"Oh I'm sorry Mitsuru…I should have known better than to-,"

"It's alright Mahiru," He cut in, "it's my fault using the wrong words. I don't like to…dance like that."

Mahiru was surprised. He hadn't yelled or cursed her in that statement. Smiling warmly she asked, "Okay Mitsuru, what kind of dancing to you like?"

He opened his eyes and looked at the black ocean waves rolling in onto the darkened beach. "Er…Ya know the slow kind." Shortly after the statement was said the music changed from the fast upbeat tempo to a slower song.

Mahiru looked over at the festival area. "Wow, that's weird that it should change right after you say that."

"Yea, that is pretty frickin weird." Mitsuru had a brief feeling of being watched but when he looked around he couldn't see anybody. "Real weird," he muttered when looking behind him.

Mahiru turned back to the boy in front of her. When he had turned around he had released one of her hands. She used it to tap him on the shoulder; he turned around. "Umm…Will you d-dance with me?" She flushed slightly.

Mitsuru silently agreed with a nod, awkwardly wrapping his hands around her waist while she draped hers across his neck. They slowly danced back and forth to the music, their eyes never leaving the others. Farther into the song Mitsuru took one of his hands away from her waist up to her face, gently stroking her cheek and running it through her hair occasionally.

During one instance he brought her closer to him making the lines of their bodies touch. It was unexpected and startled Mahiru. "Mitsuru-," He shushed her placing his fingertips gently to her lips; once the girl was quiet he ran his hand through her blonde locks.

He looked at her lovingly, by now his hand was stopped at the back of her head, he leaned his head forward until their lips barely touched and he whispered softly against her lips, "Mahiru…I love you." Mitsuru then closed the gap between the two of them with a deep and passionate kiss.

When they finally broke the kiss for air Mahiru looked like she was about to cry a river. "Oh shit," Mitsuru said, "Don't cry, I didn't mean to make you cry. Please don't-," She burst out in tears and squeezed her arms around Mitsuru. "…cry…" He sighed, bringing his hand down from her head to rub up and down her back softly.

"I'm…not…upset…I'm…happy!" she cried between sobs. (Can a person do that?) "I'm…happy you…finally…said it!...You finally…said…that you…loved me!...That makes…me so happy…because Mitsuru…I…I love you too!" The girl sobbed harder. If he had not heard that statement Mitsuru would've thought somebody just died at how hard she was crying.

He made a small sound, "Oh Mahiru…you big baby, stop crying." He pulled her away so that he could see her face; gently he wiped away the tears that started running down her face. He chuckled at her appearance, she was biting her lower lip to keep from crying further and her face was red and swollen. "Come on. It's getting late we should go home now."

Mahiru nodded her head, burying it in his chest as they lifted up off the ground. While they were soaring above the city Mahiru felt a wave of drowsiness hit her from crying so hard for a short amount of time. After a while Mitsuru finally spoke, "We're here." They touched down onto the concrete outside, Mitsuru letting go of her but keeping an arm around her waist."

"The upstairs is completely black…They all must be sleeping." He said opening the door and leading Mahiru inside. '_I think there must be at least one soul still up. And it's pissed as hell.' "What the hell are you-," 'Listen and you'll hear.'_

Mitsuru listened as told and heard a sound. "Do you hear that?" Mahiru listened for a sound and heard it too. It was someone wailing and occasionally screeching in agony, 'Why god? Why!'

"I think it's Nozomu…" Mahiru guessed, "I wonder what happened," she yawned, "while we were gone."

The tengu shrugged his shoulders, catching Mahiru off guard again by picking her up and carrying her up the stairs bridal style. Half way up he let out, with great feeling, "Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"We left those damn bears back at the beach."

"It's alright…we ruined them anyway with chocolate ice cream." They were now inside of the Princess' bedroom. Mitsuru placed her on the bed and gave her another kiss like the one they shared earlier.

"Good night Mahiru." He said turning and walking out the door, flicking off the light after him.

"Mitsuru!" Mahiru exclaimed. He stopped and looked back at her. "Good night, I love you." That being said she lied down on her bed to go to sleep. The demon boy gave her smirk before closing the door behind him.

_TBC._

**A/N: **There it is, finally, the one thing you all have been waiting for for months, heck I even put in a second one at the end for making you guys wait for so long. This is my longest chapter to date. And to my friend with the mustard (she knows who she is) from the first a/n to this one it's 11 pages so like I said I would I gave you a 10 page chapter. Also you all are probably thinking 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN TBC? THIS IS TORTURE!' Yeah it is but I have to tie up the loose ends dealing with the rest of the cast. There's more too, if you want to talk with me you can reach me at DarkChrestomanci for AIM and you can PM at Gaia at this same name (trust me the more people tell me to update the faster I'll do it). Pretty sure that that's all so Review please but don't flame my mushy marshmallow fluff! Thanks.


	19. Tying Up the Loose Ends

**A/N: **Holy shit, I never meant to take this long to update, I'm so sorry, this was supposed to out last year, but December was a bit of a rough spot on my family. And also it's been taking me a while to find the right words and phrasing of sentences, I'm a perfectionist to some degree. And since the flash back is a longer one it's like any normal part of the story, but there will be markers for when it ends.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own it; if I did it'd take 5 million years to be released, and that's just for volume 1.

**Word Key: **

Text

"Talking"

'_Thoughts_'

"_Thoughts also when two sides of the brain are arguing"_

_Dream_

**Tape Recorder**

**Chapter Nineteen: Tying Up the Loose Ends**

"Mitsuru!" Mahiru exclaimed. He stopped and looked back at her. "Good night, I love you." That being said she lied down on her bed to go to sleep. The demon boy gave her smirk before closing the door behind him.

**Meanwhile…**

Misoka was standing on the outskirts of the festival, pleased with how well the plan had gone.

**:Flashback:**

"Okay, let's go, but try not to get caught again." Misoka looked for some place that was mainly void of people but couldn't find out. "Alright, forget secrecy, time is of the essence here."

He pulled Akira down and whispered a few things in the boy's ear. "Got that?"

Akira shook his head up and down. "Ya want both of 'em?" he asked.

"Yes, yes, now hurry, make haste!"

"Alright, alright, don't go all medieval on me." The werewolf joked before he started to run off.

"Don't forget to - ,"

"Yeah, I know where to meetcha!" In the blink of an eye Akira had vanished, leaving only a small dust trail.

The fox adjusted his glasses, checked his watch, and then set off in another direction.

When he reached his destination – a big area of brush over looking the beach – Akira arrived a few seconds later, out of breath and panting. "These…what you…wanted?" He held up two black cases, one slightly smaller than the other.

Misoka took them and unzipped the larger one first. Inside was a video recorder; the fox made sure there was a blank tape in there before nodding saying, "Good." He did the same with the other which was a digital camera. "Very good work Akira, I'm proud of it,"

The two quickly became silent, spying on their friends below them. Akira had to bite his hand to keep from laughing when Mahiru started dragging Mitsuru up from his perch. "Here's where I go now, meet at the spot where I told you. Later." Misoka whispered, draping the two devices across his shoulders, heading silently into the bushes,

A few moments later the werewolf looked past Mitsuru to see the fox give him a thumbs-up sign. The boy gave a silent nod in return and listened in to what the couple was saying. Mitsuru had been waving his arms, grabbing the girl's arms and looking around as if he sensed that Misoka was behind him. Then Akira heard the magic words after Mahiru had asked the boy what kind of dancing. "Ya know, the slow kind."

'_That's it!!!' _Akira shouted silently inside his mind, jumping up like an old silent cartoon character. He ran to the dee-jay booth, which at the time was unoccupied. As quickly as possible the boy switched out the CD playing with a different one that would set the mood perfectly for the occasion.

The werewolf ran back to his previous spot to arrive just in time to see Mitsuru and Mahiru's first precious moment. '_Aww, how sweet.' _ And, '_Finally! Took him forever!' _Is what Akira thought as he watched the interaction take place. He also watched as the two flew away.

**:End Flashback:**

Once Akira saw that the two were far enough away he sped off to the outskirts where he found Misoka. "Hey…you look pleased." Akira said when he saw the older boy.

The older one nodded, "It went very well. That was some good thinking on your part Akira, I hadn't anticipated that element."

"Not a problem, just tryin' to help the process along. By the way, how'd ya do with the electronics?"

"Perfect shots with the digital camera and one precious moment caught on film…and I must say that it was great footage to be treasured for years and years to come," he said admiring his handy work. "Come on, it's getting late, we've left Nozomu at the bar alone for long enough, one only knows what'll happen if we leave him unattended any longer."

"Yeah…ya got a point there," the other said, lacing his fingers behind his head as the duo started the walk to their home. "Whadda ya think Mitsuru'll do when he finds out about this?"

"Tell me Akira, do you have a will drafted already?"

"Uh…no."

"Then I suggest you do that A-SAP." They made it back, going inside quietly; the entire place was silent. "We better check on Nozomu." The kitsune whispered. Creeping into the kitchen Misoka groaned, "Geeze, he really is off his damn rocker."

Akira looked over his comrade's head into the kitchen that would have been pitch black except there was a large thick candle, surrounded by flowers, burning on the stove. Pushing past Misoka, Akira glided over to the display. Along with the display was a dated card. "'In remembrance of Mrs. Frying Pan and Mr. Spatula. May their poor twisted remains rest in peace.'" The boy read aloud, "Weird."

"Ughhh." Misoka sighed in disgust. "He acts like a person died." He started for the steps. "Come on Akira, and will you blow out that damned candle?"

"Sure thing." He extinguished the candle making it completely dark inside the kitchen. Akira could be heard shuffling across the room followed by a loud crash of a kitchen chair as he ran into it. "Oof!"

"Akira!" Misoka hissed.

"Oww…Sorry," the boy whispered as he sat on the floor rubbing his head where it had impacted with the floor. Grabbing the edge of the table he pulled himself up off the floor, then gently placed the chair he knocked over back on its four legs. He walked softly across the floor to where Misoka was and they started climbing the stairs. "So whatcha gonna do with the stuff?" He whispered.

Misoka replied, "Well, I'm probably going to be up for another hour or so making copies."

"What for?" By now Akira was at the door to his bedroom and Misoka was walking farther down the hallway to his room. Turning around he said to the werewolf, "Are you kidding? Think of what'll happen when Mitsuru finds out about these."

Akira laughed, "Right, they'll be completely obliterated. Well, night Misoka." With that he went into his room.

"Night Akira." Misoka said, but before walking into his room he walked across the hall, placed his ear on the door and heard only the deep breathing of sleep. "Well…at least maybe now he'll stop taking in his sleep." He then went into his own room, shutting the door behind him.

MmMmMmMmM

The next morning Mitsuru woke up to a painful stab of sunlight to his eyes. Groaning he rolled over so that the sun was behind him and swinging his arm behind him, using his wind power to shut the curtain. Once that was over with his hand grasped for the cover and threw it over his head.

When he thought he had peace and quiet to slip back into unconsciousness, a loud wailing ripped through his head. "_Geeze aren't you done yet? You've been at that damn cryin' thing all damn night."__ 'But I have to leave you now! I dun wanna leave yet! Lemme stay, please, please, please!' "__How can you leave? I thought you were just part of my mind or something like that."_

The little voice gasped in shock, '_Oh yeah, you're right! So…I'll be going for a bit so…when you have the girl issues-which I know you will- just well…I dunno, just know that I'll be there.' __"Whatever, just shut up so I can sleep."_With that the little voice silenced itself for hopefully, a good long while and Mitsuru was on his way to more sleep.

Meanwhile, Mahiru was sitting up in bed stretching her arms far above her head. After she had finished she smiled thinking about the goings on of last night. But way far off in the back of her mind was the itty-bitty thought that maybe he really didn't mean any of it. Dismissing it though, she hopped out of bed and decided to see if Mitsuru was awake. She opened her door and crept quickly down to his room, opening the door, darting inside, and shutting it gently behind her.

"Mitsuru?" She tip-toed over, placing her hand where she assumed his head was at. "What are you doing still sleeping?" Crouching down so that her head was resting on the bed, she pulled the cover partially off his head, causing him to groan. "Ah, so it does live."

Mitsuru's eyes cracked open a sliver and he grinned slightly. "Mornin'." He lifted his hand from under the covers and stroked her cheek. Removing his hand for just a moment he used it to sit up and ran it through his sleep tousled hair. The entire time Mahiru hadn't said anything, just stared at him. "Is somethin' wrong?" She didn't answer, just stood up. "Hello, Mahiru, is anyone in there?"

Without warning she tackled the tengu causing both of them, along with the bedding, to go crashing to the floor. Mitsuru, being the one on the bottom of the pile, thanked the greater beings above that they had carpeted the floor of his room, but cursed them for giving this girl such a grip. "Mahiru…Mahiru…" he called to her softly but she seemed so caught up in some euphoria saying, "Yay! It wasn't a dream! You do remember last night!" Tears were starting to blossom at the corners of her eyes, all the while her grip around his neck was cutting off his air supply.

"Mahiru-chan!" Mitsuru exclaimed hoarsely, putting a hand on either side of her head, forcing it up so that he could look at her face. A bit of his anger flickered in his eyes but when he saw her face it died rather quickly and was replaced by a somewhat sad look.

"I…was…afraid…," she gulped in air, "that it…was just a dream…and I got excited…"

Mitsuru shook his head and then as he brought her face closer to his, he whisper softly, "Stupid girl…"

Just as their lips were about to meet there came a very loud, "**…GWARRRH…**" from farther down the two. Mitsuru stopped and gave the girl an incredulous look. She then turned a light shade of pink. "I think I'm hungry…" she mumbled.

Mitsuru put a hand over his eyes, shaking his head, and letting out a small chuckle. "Wha? Wha'd I do?" Mahiru asked as he laughed a bit more. "Nothing Mahiru, absolutely nothing." He sat up as much as he could with Mahiru still on top of him. "Well, are you gonna stay there all day or get some breakfast?"

She scrambled up off him as fast as she could, and then blushed when Mitsuru rose up because he was shirtless. Mahiru quickly looked aside into a corner, but her eyes drifted back. He didn't notice, just simply went about tossing the bedding back on top of the bed then picked a shirt randomly from the chest-of-drawers. "Okay, let's go." Mitsuru said running his fingers through his hair quickly.

Mahiru followed behind him out the door of his room down the hall and while she was staring at his back she noticed something. It was the set of Mitsuru's shoulders; they were more relaxed now instead of having an upset, tensed look. (She would know, after all, his back was what she would see most of the time from his stomping off like a five year old.) Though as they became closer and closer to the kitchen that relaxed look slowly dissolved away to the angry, pissed-off look. "Um…Mitsuru?" she questioned quietly.

He whirled around; his glare was firmly in place he brought his hand up to gently stroke her face. "Don't talk to me." He growled and for emphasis on that fact sent a small shock of power through his hand, enough that it would sting a bit. Mitsuru turned around and went into the kitchen with Mahiru following behind slowly looking like she was about to cry.

Misoka was the only one who looked up from his newspaper as the two entered the kitchen; Akira was too busy looking for cereal that was high in sugar. Glancing between the two seeing Mitsuru's glare and Mahiru ready to let loose a dam of tears, Misoka sighed, muttering under his breath, "Damned idiot."

At that same time Mahiru was thinking she was an idiot for thinking he had truly changed as she sat down next to Nozomu who was practically sobbing into a cup of black coffee. Also at that time Mitsuru was at the refrigerator looking into it, having his own argument, more like scolding, inside his head.

'_YOU MOTHER FREAKING IDIOT!! I LEAVE YOU ALONE FOR TEN FREAKING MINUTES AND YOU ALMOST MAKE A GIRL CRY! DAMMIT WHAT HAPPENED TO NOT NEEDING MY ANYMORE?' _The little was livid with anger at the boy. _'Come on, what lame ass excuse is it?'_

"_Starting off,"_ Mitsuru thought coolly ((it's the end of the world as we know it la la la la la la…ehheh, sorry, got a bit sidetracked)) "_No, I don't need you anymore."_

'_If that were true you wouldn't have made her cry.'_

"_I didn't mean to it's just-,"__ 'Just what?' __"Well…"__ 'If this has anything to do with saving face in front of the other guys I'm personally going to take over your vocal chords and make you declare your undying love for Mahiru and the color pink.' __"Ehheh."_

While Mitsuru was handling that Mahiru was sitting at the table next to an even greater depressed Nozomu. He sniffled a few times into the mug of coffee, plus something a little stronger, he was drinking before he noticed Mahiru there on her own verge of tears. (I just realized I write weird…)

Thing with the vampire though, was that he currently believed anyone showing any sign of sadness, was sad over the loss of Mrs. Frying Pan and Mr. Spatula. Those showing joy –Akira- were the ones responsible for the deaths and were therefore, evil. While these thoughts were rushing around in his head Nozomu scooted his chair closer to Mahiru's chair; straightening himself he wrapped his arms around her head and pulled it to his chest. Then stroking her hair, patting her back and all while putting on a failing tough act said, "It's okay, we're gonna make it through this. It's okay."

"Erm…Misoka what's he talking about?"

"A frying pan and spatula."

"Argh dammit all!" Mitsuru burst out, slamming the refrigerator door. "I've had enough of this!" He started stomping towards the hallway leading to the front door, grabbing his jacket as he went.

Mahiru's neck snapped up. "Mitsuru wait! Where are you going?"

"I'll be back in five minutes!" Then the door slammed shut. It was quiet after that; Nozomu had gone back into his quiet mourning, and Mahiru sat slumped forward in her chair. The only sound was that of Misoka rustling his newspaper every once and a while.

Finally while still reading his paper Misoka said, "Don't worry Princess, Mitsuru is trying to save his image in front of the rest of us."

"But…why?"

"It's Mitsuru; does he _ever_ have a reason for why he does that?" Akira chipped in sitting on the counter top, ears and tail popped out.

"I always though that was to keep from being teased by Nozomu."

Misoka snorted, "Nothing and no one is safe from Nozomu." He paused and was about to add something more then stopped.

"But you don't have to worry Mahiru, Mitsuru will eventually come around."

"That's all fine and dandy," Mahiru said glumly, "It's the eventually I'm worried about…"

No one said much of anything after that. But sure enough, five minutes later, just like Mitsuru said, the front door opened and shut. He came walking through the door taking a large metal looking object out of a plastic bag. The item turned out to be another frying pan; he spun it around a couple of times before…

_**WHAM**_! "Oh mi gawd Mitsuru!" Mahiru screeched.

Mitsuru had smacked Nozomu as hard as he possibly could upside the head then placed the frying pan into the boy's hand. He calmly ignored Mahiru's screamings of why he did that, how could he blah, blah, blah. Mitsuru didn't care, Nozomu was a vampire, he'd survive.

"Ow! What the hell?" Nozomu was now staring dumbfounded at the frying pan in his hand. "At least he's stopped mourning over the damn thing." Mitsuru practically yelled.

Misoka rubbed his temples. "Mitsuru it's too early for you to be yelling so just shut up."

"Dammit all!" Mitsuru was about to walk away and leave when Mahiru grabbed his hand. Instead he stood there paralyzed, looking into her sad blue eyes.

Nozomu stared at the two for one moment, then two before giving out a gasp. "Holy cows eating turtles! What developments have I missed Misoka?" the vampire exclaimed. Mitsuru and Mahiru had both turned a light pink shade.

Misoka gave a devilish smirk and Akira started laughing, almost falling off the counter top. "What'd I miss!" Nozomu cried again.

"Nothin' much," Akira said once he stopped laughing, "just those two goin' out on their first date with a kiss involved."

"Akira…," Mitsuru growled, face becoming a darker shade of pink every second.

Nozomu, on the other hand, started wailing, "AND I MISSED THAT! WHAT WAS I DOING TO MISS THAT?" His previous memories dealing with the loss of the kitchen utensils had been forgotten. Akira reminded him of the past weeks, Nozomu gave a nervous laugh claiming long-term temporary insanity.

Propping his chin on his hands he sighed, "But still, I missed out on a great and memorable moment. I'm depressed now…I missed li'tle Mitty grow up and mature…" Here Misoka gave obviously theatrical throat clearing. "I did miss a memorable moment didn't I?" Nozomu questioned.

"We have pictures." Misoka stated simply.

"Yes, score! I still get to witness a moment in the making!" He jumped out of his chair to be led by the other two to see the evidence.

"Pictures?"

Akira hopped off the counter. "And video…" he added happily.

"Double-score!"

"And video!"

"…With audio." The werewolf said on the way out the door. Nozomu's response was a one-worded muffled response.

"Audio? That's it I'ma kill all of ya! Ya won't live to see the sunset!" Mitsuru threatened, his hand slipping from Mahiru's as he strode towards the door.

The girl quickly stood up. "Mitsuru hold up a sec." She wrapped her arms around him from behind, her cheek resting in the middle of his back as she spoke. "Just let 'em go…they'd find out eventually, it was only a matter of time…" She let a few little forced tears fall, "So please…" A few more tears fell.

As the tears started falling this was Mitsuru's thought process, "_ohshit, ohshit, ohshit, fuck, ohshit, ohshit_." Slowly, he tried the best he could to turn around; surprisingly, he was successful and Mahiru's face was now buried in the front of his chest.

He raised her chin up to look at her face. Then the boy spoke two words, "You big faker." (Okay, apparently we can't count and he really said three.)

Mahiru looked at Mitsuru somewhat dazed. "Wha?"

"You heard me," He smiled a bit since he believed there was no one in sight, or hearing range, "you were tryin' to make me feel guilty fer bein' an asshole."

"Well…did it work?" Mahiru could not believe Mitsuru had picked up so easily on it.

He gave a small snort, "Took 'bout a damn year off my life…you're a pretty good…"

If there had been anything more to that statement Mitsuru didn't finish it. Instead, he wound up giving an apology for being a jerk; in Mahiru's opinion, it was one great apology.

As he had spoken his words Mitsuru's face had gotten closer and closer to Mahiru's until finally their lips were touching. This was not just a regular soft quick kiss, it was one that would be long, deep, a little awkward- it is only Mitsuru's about third time kissing-, maybe made up of one or two others and eventually wind up with Mahiru pinned in between the counter top where the sink was and Mitsuru's body.

Finally their mouths broke away as they gasped for air. Mitsuru had moved so that he was stand next to Mahiru grasping at the top of the counter looking a little more pale and shaken then when they had started; as if he couldn't believe he just did what he did.

"Mitsuru?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we just made out."

"Really?"

"Yeah…really."

He leaned in towards the girl again and they started kissing again. Mitsuru seemed to be losing some of his awkwardness every time they kissed. Then just as two were about to experiment a little more into the realm of French kissing the door separating the kitchen from the hallway and stairs opened up revealing the heads and torsos of a vampire and werewolf. (Of course the fox was there but was smarter than to stand where he was visible with the possibility of having something thrown at him.)

Nozomu brought a fist up making a loud theatrical cough into it.

Akira then spoke, "By the way if you two love birds decide to do anything else, please keep it quiet and don't do it on the table. We eat off there."

Instantly the two separated from each other, faces darker than any shade of red on a face should be that it almost seemed to become purple. They were frozen to their spots, Mahiru from embarrassment, Mitsuru from anger and wondering which one to kill first.

"You damn…I'M GONNA KILL ALL OF YA!" He started towards them but they were already on their way up the stairs.

Nozomu yelled back at the extremely pissed tengu, "And also, could you please stay off the countertop too? That would be just disturbing!"

"What are disturbing are your damn minds!" Mitsuru yelled back, starting his way up the stairs. The three other boys ran and claimed sanctuary within Oboro's upstairs office by locking the door.

They, of course, had already been in there earlier, for that was the only place with a television up there so they could watch last night's events. All other copies of it were safely hidden away, where Mitsuru couldn't, or probably wouldn't ever, be able to find them.

While Mitsuru was upstairs yelling threats through the door at the other boys Mahiru was still downstairs in the kitchen. She stood by the sink for a minute or so before she slowly sank down onto the floor.

Mahiru fell against the cabinets behind her and let out a contented, almost relieved, sigh. Then she smiled thinking about what had just happened. She and Mitsuru were definitely and officially boyfriend and girlfriend; aside from that new development things were still pretty much as they normally were.

She heard crashes coming from upstairs before there was silence then speaking, "Mitsuru…you just broke Oboro's door…man you're in deep shit." "Oh shut up." Yep, things were definitely back to normal.

**Several Months Later…**

It was now summer time, in the middle of June and Mahiru was out of school.

Since the fiasco with the tape changes had occurred that one could call drastic. Oboro and Katsura returned, finally, from their trip to find that Nozomu and Mitsuru were constantly beating each other senseless. When they finally got the two apart it was discovered that the fights happened because of Nozomu's constant taunting and following Mitsuru and Mahiru around like a second shadow. Though neither Oboro nor Katsura said it aloud, they too were happy that Mitsuru and Mahiru were together, for it meant that they didn't have to deal with a quite as moody and hormonal teenager. (One down, two to go in their opinion.)

The solution was a simple one- much to Mitsuru's disappointment, it didn't involve killing the vampire- that the couple would get a designated where absolutely no one was to bother them while they were there. (Except Oboro and Katsura of course.) The area that was given to them was the roof; which later on had a hammock put up and then after a nice long amount of rain a small wooden gazebo was built. (a/n: I wonder how many building laws/permits I broke with that sentence.)

That's where the couple was most of the days during the summer before the bar would open for the night. On this particular day, the boy and the girl were laying in the hammock. A warm breeze was lazily blowing across the roof making the hammock swing slightly. With a small hand held radio's volume was turned down playing a pop music station nearby.

While the two were swinging there Mahiru was nestled up against Mitsuru's chest with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Sleepily, she played with his fingers, sometimes wrapping and unwrapping their fingers. When she was doing that Mitsuru gently kissed her hair. At times like these Mahiru could hardly believe the boy was the same person that had said so many times before that he hated her.

Of course it had taken Mahiru forever to get Mitsuru this relaxed. Before, even when they were alone he would be very tense, uptight, and awkward. That would intensify whenever Nozomu and the others were around since the vampire teased him constantly. Though now since they were not allowed to be bothered when they were on the roof, he had gotten much better, calmer.

The breeze that had been gently blowing had turned into a strong gust. Quietly Mitsuru stated, "Storm is comin' in." He gazed up at the sky, the wind whipping his hair into his face.

Mahiru was drifting off to sleep at the time so she gave her response that was general to everything, "Okay…that's cool." She closed her eyes and wriggled around so that her face was buried in the boy's chest.

He quirked an eyebrow, since the words 'that's cool' still were not considered a general response to him. (Don't know why it just isn't) "Well what if I said the sky was on fire or… I dunno some other natural disaster?"

Mahiru looked up at him, "Yes, no, I dunno, it just all depends."

The boy shook his head in exasperation, "You're so weird sometimes." She leaned up and kissed his lips, "You're weirder."

They were about to kiss again when Mahiru felt Mitsuru tense up underneath her and saw that the vein in his forehead looked like it was going to explode. "What's wrong Mitsuru?"

"Listen," he said through gritted teeth. She did; faintly, she thought she could hear someone giggling. In an instant the hammock violently rocked back and forth once as Mitsuru stormed out of it. "Nozomu! Akira! You two are dead!"

"Oh Shit, Run Akira!" Sure enough, from some random, some-what well placed hiding spot, out pops the werewolf, followed by the vampire with the video camera that had become glued to his hand.

"No amount of running'll save yer asses!" The trio then commenced running around the rooftop in a circle.

With the expertise of a skilled cameraman Nozomu was able to run away from the angry tengu while having the camera turned around to film him chasing them. "Aww c'mon Mitsuru. You're finally growing up and we want to catch every possible moment of it."

After that a string of obscenities came from Mitsuru's mouth as he chased the other boys.

Mahiru took a deep breath and sighed. Carefully, she leaned over, turned up the radio then opened her purse that was nearby and pulled out a book. The girl leaned back into the hammock, opened her book, sighed once again, and began to read. While she was reading there was only one thought that crossed her mind, '_Yep…it's just another day at the Moonshine.'_

_Pan camera up to the sky where it the fades to black._

**THE END.**

**A/N: **First off, I want to thank all the readers and reviewers for sticking through and also putting up with my really really extremely late updates, you guys are awesome. Then everybody after this for reviewing, thanks bunches to you too, don't know where I'd be without any of you guys.It over finally, after two years and a couple of weeks after starting this, it's over. Really and truly over, I had a bunch of fun sleep deprived times writing this fic; it was, in a way, a big part of my life. A security blanket like one of my library books. Also, it's a major accomplishment for me, for this is the first multi-chaptered fanfic I've ever finished, and this is my longest chapter, 13 pages in word. **Since this is the last chappie for this fic, I ask that you would please review. **

**Other goings on:** Well I've finished this so it does prove that I can start something and then finish it, so HOPEFULLY, I'll be updating _Shadow_ in about a month I don't want it to be more than two though. I stopped writing that so that I could get this one finished. _Greatest Day of Our Lives_ will also get updated sometime soon also. Well it's after 3:30 a.m. I'm tired, my demon Mitsu is tired, so we're gonna head off to get some well deserved rest in our room with all our black and white horror films. Thanks for sticking with the story everybody, hope ya come back to read more. Love ya all!


End file.
